J. Ivy Quotes

A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit.

Tell the truth, because sooner or later the public will find out anyway. And if the public doesn't like what you are doing, change your policies and bring them into line with what people want.

Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.

There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not always the best.

What was the point in satin and lace if it didn't make a man struggle to speak?

Dante to Abby: My God you are going to kill me. Again

My youth is escaping without giving me anything it owes me.

We can build upon foundations anywhere if they are well and firmly laid.

As regards plot I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots. And as I think a plot desirable and almost necessary, I have this extra grudge against life.

Real life seems to have no plots.

In an imperfect world perfection is not instantly available. Railroad safety, for instance, cannot be secured by mechanical devices alone. It is primarily a resultant of care and discipline.

I never know why self-sacrifice is noble. Why is it better to sacrifice oneself than someone else?

A family is like medicine." She twisted her lips into a sardonic smile. "Best in small doses.

Self-pity is, perhaps, the least becoming of all emotions, and we often indulge in it only beause we are too exhausted to resist.

Many people misjudge the permanent effect of sorrow, and their capacity to live in the past.

Write down the most important things you have to do tomorrow.

Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth,' said his cousin. 'But we seem to have no other.

I wonder the human race has been so fond of migrations, when the young take so hardly to traveling.

A plot is like the bones of a person, not interesting like expression, or signs of experience, but the support of the whole.

A person who can really be called an unselfish person, has no place in life.

Pushing forty? She's hanging on for dear life.

I'm often wrong, but never in doubt.

No matter how carefully you plan it, there are times when you suddenly find yourself a committee of one, in charge of lifting the entire world with a lever.

My father had always said there are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep, and lots of soap and water. After that, what he needs most is some intelligent neglect.

At a certain point my novels set. They set just as hard as that jam jar. And then I know they are finished.

If you don't deal with your emotions, one day your emotions will deal with you.

The most original novelist now writing in English.

There is danger in courage. Cowardice is a power for good. We hardly know what it prevents.

People who have power respond simply. They have no minds but their own.

When I die, people will say it is the best thing for me. It is because they know it is the worst. They want to avoid the feeling of pity. As though they were the people most concerned!

We women ought to put first things first. Why should we mind if men have their faces on the money, as long as we get our hands on it?

We women don't care too much about getting our pictures on money as long as we can get our hands on it.

Dear, dear, the miniature world of the family! All the emotions of mankind seem to find a place in it.

I am ill at ease with people whose lives are an open book.

There is probably nothing like living together for blinding people to each other.

There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

People's weaker side is not necessarily their truer self.

For any thinking person, it (perpetual happiness) is untenable. If you're a thinking person, your upbeat sometimes, said sometimes.

It is no good to think that other people are out to serve our interests.

Choose your words meticulously and then let them rumble up from some deep furnace of conviction.

Reaching out to any fellow ghetto kids is an act he puts in the same category as doing drugs: the initial rush of warmth and euphoria puts you on a path to ruin.

Civilized life exacts its toll.

Magnifying a matter is not the way to mend it.

it is in our minds that we live much of our life.

some people always have a touch of youth about them.

As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.

Duty is seldom liked either by the doer or the object ... And why should it be? It is not often of advantage to either.

What concerns anyone so much as the time he has to live?

We do not discuss the members of our family to their faces.

Never is a long word.