Believe in fate, but lean forward where fate can see you.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
(Attributed)
Quotations by:
Crisp, Quentin
Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically — for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist — but then what isn’t?
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behavior (1984)
(Source)
A gentleman doesn’t pounce … he glides.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Manners from Heaven, ch. 6 (1984)
Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 18 (1968)
Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses.
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
The Naked Civil Servant, ch. 29 (1968)
When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) English writer and raconteur [b. Denis Pratt]
Interview with the author, in Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon (1992)