Quotes from Dorothy Sayers

Then making the noise usually written "Tut-tut," he

And heresy is, as I have tried to show, largely the expression of opinion of the untutored average man, trying to grapple with the problems of the universe at the point where they begin to interfere with daily life and thought.

to tell the reader what the detective has observed and deduced — but to make the observations and deductions turn out to be incorrect, thus leading up to a carefully manufactured surprise packet in the last chapter.

The whole question is extraordinarily complicated because of the gulf that has grown up between art on the one hand and on the other hand both the Church and secular society, so that the artists tend to be out of touch with the common man, while the latter, whether Christian or not, has only a very fumbling critical judgment to rely on.

I could not attempt to 'kindle the younger generation with the Gospel,' the most I could do would be to suggest to them that the Christian Faith is a logical explanation of the Universe well worth their attention, and neither an irrational myth nor a system of ethics which will stand by itself when the dogmatic foundation has been removed from beneath it.

In my day one had to have either brains or beauty to get on -- preferably both. Nowadays nothing seems to be required but a total lack of figure.

Lord, teach us to take our hearts and look them in the face, however difficult it may be." CHAPTER XVI From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From Murders Benedicite.

It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle.

That a work of creation struggles and insistently demands to be brought into being is a fact that no genuine artist would think of denying.

Well, it is the law, my lord,' replied Mr Blundell, 'and it's not my place to argue about it.

If thine eye be single, the whole body is full of light

so interesting and a really remarkable face, though perhaps not strictly good-looking, and all the more interesting for that, because good-looking people are so often cows.