Harold Nicolson Quotes & Sayings

We were preparing not Peace only, but Eternal Peace. There was about us the halo of some divine mission. We were bent on doing great, permanent noble things. — Harold Nicolson

The great secret of a successful marriage is to treat all disasters as incidents and none of the incidents as disasters. — Harold Nicolson

To be a good diarist, one must have a snouty, sneaky mind. — Harold Nicolson

The gift of broadcasting is, without question, the lowest human capacity to which any man could attain. — Harold Nicolson

The worst thing, I fear, about being no longer young is that one is no longer young. — Harold Nicolson

Every schoolmaster after the age of forty-nine, is inclined to flatulence is apt to swallow frequently and to puff — Harold Nicolson

We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts. — Harold Nicolson

These, then, are the qualities of my ideal diplomatist. Truth, accuracy, calm, patience, good temper, modesty and loyalty. They are also the qualities of an ideal diplomacy. But, the reader may object, you have forgotten intelligence, knowledge, discernment, prudence, hospitality, charm, industry, courage and even tact. I have not forgotten them. I have taken them for granted. — Harold Nicolson

Berlin stimulates like arsenic. — Harold Nicolson

Few things are more agreeable than the spectacle of a man who loses his temper; we should be grateful to such people for providing us with moments of often unsullied delight. — Harold Nicolson

Only one person in 1000 is a bore, and HE is interesting because he is one person in 1000. — Harold Nicolson

Let us educate the younger generation to be shy in and out of season: to edge behind the furniture: to say spasmodic and ill-digested things: to twist their feet round the protective feet of sofas and armchairs: to feel that their hands belong to someone else
that they are objects, which they long to put down on some table away from themselves.
For shyness is the protective fluid within which our personalities are able to develop into natural shapes. Without this fluid the character becomes merely standardized or imitative: it is within the tender velvet sheath of shyness that the full flower of idiosyncrasy is nurtured: it is from this sheath alone that it can eventually unfold itself, coloured and undamaged. Let the shy understand, therefore, that their disability is not only an inconvenience, but also a privilege. Let them regard their shyness as a gift rather than as an affliction. Let them consider how intolerable are those of their contemporaries who are not also shy. — Harold Nicolson

It must be confessed that the English gentleman, especially if he be devoted to field and other sports, is apt to attribute slight importance to mental felicity or learning. I happen to enjoy the system, having suffered much on the continent from people who pretend to be intellectuals when they are not. Yet it is undeniable that a type of civility that excludes or misprises the humanities compares ill with the ideal of the perfectly endowed and developed human being which the Greeks and the best teachers of the Renaissance held as examples for emulation. — Harold Nicolson

Coaches should realize that the only way to conquer drudgery is by getting through it as efficiently as they can. A dull job slackly done becomes twice as dull, whereas a dull job performed as efficiently as possible becomes half as dull. Effort appears to be the main art of living. — Harold Nicolson

His muse walked the streets with the others but she wore galoshes and was terribly afraid of being recognized. — Harold Nicolson

The Irish do not want anyone to wish them well; they want everyone to wish their enemies ill. — Harold Nicolson

Intellectuals incline to be individualists, or even independents, are not team conscious and tend to regard obedience as a surrender of personality. — Harold Nicolson