Tom Holt Quotes

• American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957.

  Tom Holt

  Perfect, Tea, Style

  87 Copy quote

• In spite of really intense competition for the job, I'm still my own worst enemy.

  Tom Holt

  Jobs, Worst Enemy, Competition

  12 Copy quote

• Human beings can get used to virtually anything, given plenty of time and no choice in the matter whatsoever.

  Tom Holt

  Choices, Matter, Used

  9 Copy quote

• Telling lies is a bit like tiling bathrooms - if you don't know how to do it properly, it's best not to try.

  Tom Holt

  Lying, Trying, Bathroom

  8 Copy quote

• Descartes' immortal conclusion cogito ergo sum was recently subjected to destruction testing by a group of graduate researchers at Princeton led by Professors Montjuic and Lauterbrunnen, and now reads, in the Shorter Harvard Orthodoxy:
  (a) I think, therefore I am; or
  (b) Perhaps I thought, therefore I was; but
  (c) These days, I tend to leave that side of things to my wife.

  Tom Holt

  Thinking, Wife, Groups

  Tom Holt (2009). “Ye Gods!”, p.169, Hachette UK

  10 Copy quote

• Among the gods, there is a dispute as to which one of them originally thought of Christianity; or, as they call it, the Great Leg Pull. Apollo has the best claim, but a sizeable minority support Pluto, ex-God of the Dead, on the grounds that he has a really sick sense of humour. How would it be, suggested the unidentified god, if first we tell them all to love their neighbour, pack in the killing and thieving, and be nice to each other. Then we let them start burning heretics.

  Tom Holt

  Nice, Sick, Support

  9 Copy quote

• Luck, like a Russian car, generally only works if you push it.

  Tom Holt

  Car, Luck, Ifs

  Tom Holt (2002). “The Second Tom Holt Omnibus”

  7 Copy quote

• After all, what else is scientific enquiry of any sort other than a controlled version of banging one's head against the universe until something gives?

  Tom Holt

  Giving, Enquiry, Banging

  9 Copy quote

• There is that within a man that drives him ever onwards, just as the power of the seasons drives the roots of flowers into the hard earth; and so he decided, against his better judgment, to open his eyes and find out what was going to happen to him next.

  Tom Holt

  Hope, Flower, Ambition

  4 Copy quote

• It was irritating to have one's physical shortcomings pointed out quite so plainly twice in one evening, once by a beautiful girl and once by a dying badger.

  Tom Holt

  Beautiful, Girl, Workout

  "Expecting Someone Taller". Book by Tom Holt, 1987.

  11 Copy quote

• At any given time, ninety-nine-point-nine-five per cent of the human race are a confounded nuisance

  Tom Holt

  Ninety Nine, Race, Nuisance

  tom holt (1991). “flying dutch”

  5 Copy quote

• Love is an optical illusion that makes you believe the object of your affection is the most beautiful person in the world.

  Tom Holt

  Beautiful, Believe, Love Is

  Tom Holt (2008). “In Your Dreams”, p.91, Hachette UK

  8 Copy quote

• Genies rarely have nightmares, for the same reason that elephants don't usually worry about being trampled underfoot. With the possible exception of bottles, there's nothing in the cosmos large enough or malicious enough to frighten them, or stupid enough to try.

  Tom Holt

  Stupid, Elephants, Worry

  Tom Holt (2012). “Djinn Rummy”, p.79, Hachette UK

  5 Copy quote

• There's all sorts of things I was always meaning to get around to - learning to play the flute, calculating the square root of nought, going mad - but I just didn't have the time.

  Tom Holt

  Squares, Play, Roots

  4 Copy quote

• New technology is useful, but it's inefficient and ugly; it knows it'll be obsolete by lunchtime tomorrow, so it has no incentive to be anything else

  Tom Holt

  Technology, Incentives, Ugly

  16 Copy quote

• Not only had he lost the only girl he'd ever loved, he'd lost her in duplicate, like some heartbroken but highly efficient civil servant.

  Tom Holt

  Girl, Heartbroken, Lost

  5 Copy quote

• Mostly I sit at home in the evenings watching the box and hoping that one day I'll evolve into plankton.

  Tom Holt

  Home, One Day, Evening

  7 Copy quote

• Everything is out there if you know how to find it, and have the patience. I don't and haven't, but that's my problem

  Tom Holt

  Patience, Problem, Know How

  7 Copy quote

• There’s nothing bad about reincarnation per se, it’s basically a very good system, cost-effective and ecologically friendly.

  Tom Holt

  Friendly, Cost, Reincarnation

  9 Copy quote

• Lawyers are predators in grey worsted

  Tom Holt

  Predator, Lawyer, Grey

  17 Copy quote

• I don't read the Sunday papers; or the dailies, either

  Tom Holt

  Sunday, Paper, Papers

  4 Copy quote

• I try and do 2,500 words a day, every day of the year

  Tom Holt

  Years, Trying, Days Of The Year

  5 Copy quote

• Poetry is one of the few nasty childhood habits I've managed to grow out of

  Tom Holt

  Funny, Childhood, Nasty

  5 Copy quote

• American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot

  Tom Holt

  Perfect, Tea, Style

  6 Copy quote

• The best definition of an immortal is someone who hasn't died yet.

  Tom Holt

  Definitions, Immortal, Died

  "Ye Gods!". Book by Tom Holt, 1992.

  8 Copy quote

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