But then, when I did go, the contrast between Leeds, which was very black and sooty in those days, and Cambridge, which seemed like something out of a fairystory, in the grip of a hard frost, was just wonderful.
ALAN BENNETTOf course they’re out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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I’ve never forgotten that experience. But I had nobody at school that was either like Hector or Irwin.
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Polly: Education with socialists, it’s like sex, all right as long as you don’t have to pay for it.
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One reads for pleasure…it is not a public duty.
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One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.
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I’m for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control.
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The trouble is, as soon as you’ve chosen somebody it obscures anybody else you might have thought of.
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History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
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Books are not about passing time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds.
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I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.
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Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.
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Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion.
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That’s a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water.
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You always know when you’re going to arrive. If you go by car, you don’t. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find.
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The longer I practise medicine, the more convinced I am there are only two types of cases: those that involve taking the trousers off and those that don’t.
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Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.
ALAN BENNETT






