Frederick Rolfe Quotes & Sayings

An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is, to a vain and sensitive soul, a stinging insult. — Frederick Rolfe

Truth is tarter than taradiddles; and nothing is tarter, terser, than truth on the track of tired trash in a trance. — Frederick Rolfe

Most people have only half developed their single personalities. That a man should split his into four and more; and should develop each separately and perfectly, was so abnormal that many normals failed to understand it. — Frederick Rolfe

Shall I tell you the difference between our Holy Father and ourselves? We see things from a single view-point. He sees things from several. We decide that the thing is as we see it. But He has seen it otherwise, and He presents it as a more or less complete coaction of its qualities. See this sapphire. Well, you see the face of it: underneath, if I take it off my finger, there are a number of facets to be seen and a number more which are hidden by the gold of the setting. Now my meaning is that our Holy Father has seen all the facets as well as the table of the sapphire, or the thing. Consequently He knows a great deal more about the sapphire, or the thing, than we do. You must have noted that in Him. You must have noted how that every now and then, when He deigns to explain, He makes mysteries appear most wonderfully lucid. — Frederick Rolfe

It's all nonsense to say that the Fifteenth Century can't possibly speak to the Twentieth, because it is the Fifteenth and not the Twentieth, and because those two Centuries haven't got a Common Denominator. They have. It's Human Nature. — Frederick Rolfe

The student of history knows no more refreshing recreation than that of nailing liars, like vermin, to the wall. — Frederick Rolfe