Osbert Sitwell

“The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy…to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.”

“The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it.”

“Hell has a climate, but no situation. It lies in the spirit, and not in space.”

“The Rich Man's Banquet, which was to last for a decade, had now begun: the feast, it was recognised, went to the greediest.”

“They loved him, I think, because, with all his merits, he showed them to be rich: looking at his portraits, they understood at last how rich they really were.”

“Everywhere men have unlocked the prisoners within, and from under the disguising skins the apes have leapt joyfully out.”

“How simple-minded of the Germans to imagine that we British could be cowed by the destruction of our ancient monuments! As though any havoc of the German bombs could possibly equal the things we have done ourselves!”

“Educ[ated]: during the holidays from Eton.”

“For Poetry is the wisdom of the blood,That scarlet tree within, which has the powerTo make dull words bud forth and burst in flower.”

“Heroic figures are now obsolete,So Demigod and Devil find retreatIn minds of children — as rare beasts and men,Elsewhere extinct, persist in hill or fenFrom man protected — where each form assumesGigantic stature and intention, loomsFrom wind-moved, twilight-woven histories:For them each flower teems with mysteries.”

“Our GeneralHad to restore"Law-and-Order" At Amritsar; For he knewThat if he failedTo shootTwo thousand nativesThey would have laughed at him.To laugh at a General,Is, of course, very rude.”

“The Daily Herald is unkind.It has been horridAbout my nice new war.I shall burn the Daily Herald.”

“The British bourgeoisieIs not bornAnd does not die,But, if it is ill,It has a frightened look in its eyes.”