Never think that wars are irrational catastrophes: they happen when wrong ways of thinking and living bring about intolerable situations.… The root causes of conflict are usually to be found in some wrong way of life in which all parties have acquiesced, and for which everybody must, to some extent, bear the blame.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

About Dorothy L. Sayers

Portrait of Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( SAIRZ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.

More quotations from Dorothy L. Sayers

The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

Unless we do change our whole way of thought about work, I do not think we shall ever escape from the appalling squirrel-cage of economic confusion in which we have been madly turning for the last three centuries or so, the cage in which we landed ourselves by acquiescing in a social system based upon envy and avarice.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

economics work envy avarice

The worst sin—perhaps the only sin—passion can commit, is to be joyless.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

Books… are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

We may argue eloquently that "honesty is the best policy." Unfortunately, the moment honesty is adopted for the sake of policy it mysteriously ceases to be honesty.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

History

3 Dec 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Never think that wars are irrational catastrophes: they happen when wrong ways of thinking and living bring about intolerable situations. . . . The root causes of conflict are usually to be found in some wrong way of life in which all parties have acquiesced, and for which everybody must, to some extent, bear the blame.