Muriel Spark

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”

“For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.”

“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.”

“To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.”

“Safety does not come first. It is safety last.”

“It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality.”

“One's prime is elusive.”

“A writer's life is a highly artificial one.”

“Art and religion, life and death, everything is connected.”

“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.”

“If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly.”

“Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.”

“I never trust the airlines from those countries where the pilots believe in the afterlife.”

“When people say nothing is impossible, I say, 'I do nothing every day.'”

“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.”