Muriel Spark Quotes

Quotes about:

• I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work.

  Muriel Spark

  Voice, Sound, Quiet

  Muriel Spark (2001). “Loitering with Intent”, p.80, New Directions Publishing

  52 Copy quote

• She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.

  Muriel Spark

  Persons, Happens, Happenings

  Muriel Spark (2001). “Aiding and Abetting: A Novel”, p.76, Anchor

  27 Copy quote

• If you choose the sort of life which has no conventional pattern you have to try to make an art of it, or it is a mess.

  Muriel Spark

  Art, Trying, Patterns

  Muriel Spark (2015). “Robinson”, p.59, Canongate Books

  9 Copy quote

• Ridicule is the only honorable weapon we have left.

  Muriel Spark

  Weapons, Honorable, Ridicule

  Muriel Spark (2018). “A Good Comb: The Sayings of Muriel Spark”, p.21, New Directions Publishing

  22 Copy quote

• From my experience of life I believe my personal motto should be: 'Beware of any man bringing flowers.

  Muriel Spark

  Believe, Flower, Men

  5 Copy quote

• A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

  Muriel Spark

  Tyrants, Revolution, Chance

  Muriel Spark (2015). “The Abbess of Crewe”, p.26, Canongate Books

  21 Copy quote

• Beware the ire of the calm.

  Muriel Spark

  Calm

  Muriel Spark (2015). “The Abbess of Crewe”, p.22, Canongate Books

  5 Copy quote

• everything happens to an artist; time is always redeemed, nothing is lost and wonders never cease.

  Muriel Spark

  Artist, Wonder, Lost

  Muriel Spark (2001). “Loitering with Intent”, p.116, New Directions Publishing

  14 Copy quote

• If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid.

  Muriel Spark

  Death, Practice, Eggs

  "The prime of Miss Jean Brodie; The comforters; The only problem; The driver's seat; Memento mori".

  24 Copy quote

• I never trust the airlines from those countries where the pilots believe in the afterlife. You are safer when they don't.

  Muriel Spark

  Country, Believe, Afterlife

  Muriel Spark (1994). “The Driver's Seat”, p.68, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• You look for one thing and you find another.

  Muriel Spark

  Looks, One Thing

  Muriel Spark (2014). “Memento Mori”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

  18 Copy quote

• To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.

  Muriel Spark

  Teacher, Soul, Great Education

  'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1961) ch. 2

  31 Copy quote

• The true novelist is one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story.

  Muriel Spark

  Art, Novelists, Different

  FaceBook post by Muriel Spark from Oct 28, 2014

  32 Copy quote

• If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat . . .

  Muriel Spark

  Cat, Writing, Pieces

  22 Copy quote

• It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.

  Muriel Spark

  Smile, Men, Doe

  Muriel Spark (2015). “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, p.68, Canongate Books

  24 Copy quote

• It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden.

  Muriel Spark

  White, Silence, Black

  Muriel Spark (2015). “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, p.11, Canongate Books

  20 Copy quote

• One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

  Muriel Spark

  Girl, Time, Growing Up

  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ch. 1 (1961)

  17 Copy quote

• Fiction to me is a kind of parable. You have got to make up your mind it's not true. Some kind of truth emerges from it, but it's not fact.

  Muriel Spark

  Mind, Fiction, Facts

  6 Copy quote

• Being in love is something like poetry. Certainly, you can analyze and expound its various senses and intentions, but there is always something left over, mysteriously hovering between music and meaning.

  Muriel Spark

  Being In Love, Love Is, Hovering

  Muriel Spark (2014). “The Informed Air: Essays”, p.187, New Directions Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• The sacrifice of pleasures is of course itself a pleasure.

  Muriel Spark

  Happiness, Sacrifice, Pleasure

  Muriel Spark (2014). “Loitering with Intent”, p.42, New Directions Publishing

  21 Copy quote

• Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes.

  Muriel Spark

  Character, Contradiction, Notes

  Muriel Spark (2014). “Loitering with Intent”, p.16, New Directions Publishing

  20 Copy quote

• It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.

  Muriel Spark

  Love, Doe, Impossible

  Muriel Spark (2012). “The Mandelbaum Gate: A Novel”, p.58, Open Road Media

  17 Copy quote

• If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic.

  Muriel Spark

  Christian, Catholic, May

  23 Copy quote

• It is one of the secrets of Nature in its mood of mockery that fine weather lays heavier weight on the mind and hearts of the depressed and the inwardly tormented than does a really bad day with dark rain sniveling continuously and sympathetically from a dirty sky.

  Muriel Spark

  Rain, Dirty, Bad Day

  Muriel Spark (2012). “Territorial Rights: A Novel”, p.46, Open Road Media

  40 Copy quote

• If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding.

  Muriel Spark

  Writing, Cat, Serenity

  4 Copy quote

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