Doris Lessing Quotes

1919-, British Novelist
quotes
21
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“Pearls mean tears.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidenceTears
“Better Counsel comes overnight.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidenceCounsel
“Laughter is by definition healthy.”
VerifiedThe Summer Before the Dark (1973) · evidenceLaughter
“Literature is analysis after the event.”
Literature
“Some people obtain fame, others deserve it.”
Fame
“The worst superstition is to consider our own tolerable.”
Superstition
“Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time.”
VerifiedThe Guardian, London (7 November 1988) · evidenceScience Fiction
“Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidenceFaults
“A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.”
Prayer
“Man who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidenceHumankind
“It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidencePriorities
“In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.”
VerifiedMartha Quest (1952), Part III, ch. 2 · evidenceColleges and Universities
“Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Doris Lessing; no source in their known works. · evidenceBorrowing
“If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.”
VerifiedParticularly Cats, ch. 2 (1967) · evidenceCats
“It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.”
VerifiedThe Grass Is Singing, ch. 2 (1950) · evidenceSelf-image
“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.”
VerifiedThe Four-Gated City (1969) · evidenceLearning
“What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate, that you don't need love when you do or that you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.”
Love
“The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.”
VerifiedThe Sunday Times (London, 10 May 1992) · evidenceAge and Aging
“Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.”
VerifiedThe Sunday Times (London, 10 May 1992) · evidencePolitical Correctness
“This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there's a layer of people who run everything. But we --we're just peasants. We don't understand what's going on, and we can't do anything.”
VerifiedThe Good Terrorist (1985) · evidenceExperts