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

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

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

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

Every time a man expects, as he says, his money to work for him, he is expecting other people to work for him.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

expectations labor money economics banking

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

thought quotation originality

Truth, poor child, was nobody's daughter. She took off her clothes and jumped in the water.

—Dorothy L. Sayers

More quotations tagged with “books”

Nothing can do what a book can do. Lifts you out of your life… to a whole new world, whole new perspective. A book is like a dream you're borrowing from a friend.

—Dave Kellett

It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead.

—Dame Rose Macaulay

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

learning knowledge soul books

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

—Christopher Morley

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.

—Charles W. Eliot

friends wisdom books teachers

History

11 Jul 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

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.