Doris Lessing Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“I wanted to write about my mother as she should have been if she had not been messed up by World War I.”

“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.”

“I'm sure that everybody feels a kind of permanent anguish about what's going on in the world.”

“When I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires. You know, when people talk about the British Empire, they always forget that all the European countries had empires.”

“Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.”

“I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married.”

“There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.”

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.”

“In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.”

“For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.”