Osbert Sitwell Quotes

• In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Time, Reality, Names

  Poems about People (1958) "Milordo Inglese"

  49 Copy quote

• Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Health, Blood, Tree

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “The Cruel Month”, Olympic Marketing Corp

  27 Copy quote

• The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  Osbert Sitwell (1950). “Noble essences: a book of characters”

  12 Copy quote

• Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Writing, Cat, Poetry

  10 Copy quote

• I have always said that if I were a rich man, I would employ a professional praiser.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Funny, Money, Men

  7 Copy quote

• The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Artist, World, May

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography”

  13 Copy quote

• For Poetry is the wisdom of the blood,That scarlet tree within, which has the powerTo make dull words bud forth and burst in flower.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Flower, Blood, Tree

  10 Copy quote

• A golf course outside a big town serves an excellent purpose in that it segregates, as though a concentration camp, all the idle and idiot well-to-do.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Golf, Purpose, Towns

  11 Copy quote

• Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Lying, Space, Climate

  Osbert Sitwell (1946). “The scarlet tree: being the second volume of Left hand, right hand! An autobiography”, London, Macmillan & co. ltd.

  7 Copy quote

• It is fatal to be appreciated in one's own time.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Appreciated

  5 Copy quote

• We attended stables, as we attended church, in our best clothes, thereby no doubt showing the degree of respect due to horses.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Horse, Clothes, Doubt

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography”

  7 Copy quote

• Everywhere men have unlocked the prisoners within, and from under the disguising skins the apes have leapt joyfully out.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Men, Skins, Apes

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “The Cruel Month”, Olympic Marketing Corp

  7 Copy quote

• The Rich Man's Banquet, which was to last for a decade, had now begun: the feast, it was recognised, went to the greediest.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Men, Lasts, Rich

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography”

  7 Copy quote

• My education [takes place] during the holidays from Eton.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Holiday, Eton

  5 Copy quote

• The terrible newly imported American doctrine that everyone ought to do something.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Work, Doctrine, Terrible

  Osbert Sitwell (1977). “Left Hand, Right Hand!: An Autobiography”

  4 Copy quote

• Heroic figures are now obsolete,So Demigod and Devil find retreatIn minds of children - as rare beasts and men,Elsewhere extinct, persist in hill or fenFrom man protected - where each form assumesGigantic stature and intention, loomsFrom wind-moved, twilight-woven histories:For them each flower teems with mysteries.

  Osbert Sitwell

  Children, Flower, Twilight

  Osbert Sitwell (1931). “The collected satires and poems of Osbert Sitwell”

  7 Copy quote

• How simple-minded of the Germans to imagine that we British could be cowed by the destruction of our ancient monuments! As though any havoc of the German bombs could possibly equal the things we have done ourselves!

  Osbert Sitwell

  Simple, Bombs, Done

  "Tribune", Quoted by George Orwell, December 31, 1943.

  4 Copy quote

• For forty days he went out into the desert - and never shot anything [on Jesus]

  Osbert Sitwell

  Jesus, Desert, Shots

  7 Copy quote

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