A.P. Herbert Quotes

Hating hard work can get to be such an obsession that you won't let it pile up.

[History is] the very servant of the servants of God, the drudge of all the drudges.

During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.

The Fox, when hee cannot reach the grapes, saies they are not ripe.

The structure of human betterment cannot be built upon foundations of materialism or business, but upon the bedrock of individual character in free men and women.

Presidents have only two moments of personal seclusion. One is prayer; the other fishing - and they cannot pray all the time!

The recognition of Russia on November 16, 1933, started forces which were to have considerable influence in the attempt to collectivize the United States.

Truth alone can stand the guns of criticism.

Hunger is the mother of anarchy.

I have come to believe that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will.

To the soul's desires The body listens What the flesh requires Keeps the heart imprisoned

Every man is a potential genius until he does something.

Induction makes you feel guilty for getting something out of nothing, and it is artificial, but it is one of the greatest ideas of civilization.

WHILE A MANS BATTLE against himself is undoubtedly at the heart of golfs abiding appeal, the setting in which it is played is, for most golfers, one of the most wonderful things about it.

When you are an Anvill, hold you still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

If gold knew what gold is, gold would get gold I wis.

We faced it and did not resist. The storm passed through us and around us. It's gone, but we remain.

By doing nothing we learne to do ill.

I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working.

The people have a vital interest in the conservation of their natural resources; in the prevention of wasteful practices.

Unused power was like a marionette with visible strings, nobody holding them. A compelling attraction: I could make it dance.

Feare nothing but sinne.

There has never been a truly selfless rebel, just hypocrites—conscious hypocrites or unconscious hypocrites, it’s all the same.

Unfortunately most criticism is by poseurs. They use their comments about someone else's work as a platform on which to strike poses. What they're really saying is: "Look at me! Look at me!"

Gold opens all locks, no lock will hold against the power of gold.

For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.

An ignorant friend is worse than a learned foe.

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality ... and fall.

This doctrine of the material efficacy of prayer reduces the Creator to a cosmic bellhop of a not very bright or reliable kind.

Without businesse debauchery.

The fact of our salvation being not something, but Someone, produces quietness of spirit and an unshakable confidence.

The real universe is always one step beyond logic.

To buy deare is not bounty.

Of a little thing a little displeaseth.

Doe what thou oughtest, and come what come can.

To write a verse or two is all the praise That I can raise.

He that is drunken * * * Is outlawed by himself; all kind of ill Did with his liquor slide into his veins.

Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent natural regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it.

Life is not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and working are for life.

Madness in method, that's genius

The past is no farther away than your pillow.

If I'd been born in my grandfather's time, I'd have made my grandfather's mistakes. Theres no doubt of it. I just don't want to make my grandfather's mistakes today.

We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.

He is a great Necromancer, for he asks counsel counsell of the Dead (i.e. books).

Hee that strikes with his tongue, must ward with his head.

Play not for gain, but sport. Who plays for more Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart; Perhaps his wife's too, and whom she hath bore.

Wisedome hath one foot on Land, and another on Sea.

All things require skill but an appetite.

Who eates the Kings Goose uoydes the feathers an hundred years after. [Who eats the king's goose voids the feathers a hundred years after.]

When you imagine mistakes, there can be no self-defense.