Quote#Speech
Then she will say that she believes in an Omnipotent Deity or she…
Quote byFord Madox Ford · 1873–1939
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Good Soldier (1915), Part Four, Ch. VI (p. 254).
English (original)
Then she will say that she believes in an Omnipotent Deity or she will utter the one word "shuttle-cocks", perhaps. It is very extraordinary to see the perfect flush of health on her cheeks, to see the lustre of her coiled black hair, the poise of the head upon the neck, the grace of the white hands — and to think that it all means nothing — that it is a picture without a meaning.
— Ford Madox Ford
More from Ford Madox Ford
Only two classes of books are of universal appeal: the very best and the very worst.
No more Hope, no more Glory, no more parades for you and me any more. Nor for the country... nor for the world, I dare say... None... Gone.
If for nine years I have possessed a goodly apple that is rotten at the core and discover its rottenness only in nine years and six months less four days, isn't it true to say that for nine years I possessed a goodly apple?
What the artist wishes to do — as far as you are concerned — is to take you out of yourself. As far as he is concerned, he wishes to express himself.
I couldn't regard myself as personally repulsive. No man can, or, if he ever comes to do so, that is the end of him.
No author, I think, is deserving of much censure for vanity if, taking down one of his ten-year-old books, he exclaims: "Great heavens, did I write as well as that then?" for the implication always is that one does not write any longer so …