Cloisters, ancient libraries … I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.
ALAN BENNETTOne of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human.
More Alan Bennett Quotes
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Deluded liberal that I am, I persist in thinking that those with a streak of sexual unorthodoxy ought to be more tolerant of their fellows than those who lead an entirely godly, righteous and sober life.
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Books are not about passing time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds.
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Why is it always the “intelligent” people who are socialists?
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You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.
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A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot.
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Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.
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And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
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Schweitzer in the Congo did not derive more moral credit than Larkin did for living in Hull.
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I write plays about things that I can’t resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.
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The days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do.
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Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
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Had your forefathers, Wigglesworth, been as stupid as you are, the human race would never have succeeded in procreating itself.
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The liturgy is best treated and read as if it’s someone announcing the departure of trains.
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I saw someone peeing in Jermym Street the other day. I thought, is this the end of civilization as we know it? Or is it simply someone peeing in Jermyn Street?
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A photograph on every mantlepiece. And all this mourning has veiled the truth. It’s not so much lest we forget, as lest we remember.
ALAN BENNETT