Ivor Quotes & Sayings

British girls are as temperamental as Americans. — Ivor Novello

It [ non-Euclidean geometry ] would be ranked among the most famous achievements of the entire [nineteenth] century, but up to 1860 the interest was rather slight. — Ivor Grattan-Guinness

Things which do not require effort of some sort are seldom worth having. — Ivor Novello

Night, and besides, was ably helped by brave comrades." "The comrades he speaks of," Ivor said, "were too busy — Kazuo Ishiguro

If thou art able, O stranger, to find out all these things and gather them together in your mind, giving all the relations, thou shalt depart crowned with glory and knowing that thou hast been adjudged perfect in this species of wisdom. — Ivor Bulmer-Thomas

Non-Newtonian calculi ... have considerable potential as alternative approaches to traditional problems. — Ivor Grattan-Guinness

There are strange hells within the minds war made ... — Ivor Gurney

In the visitor's book at Crome Ivor had left, according to his invariable custom in these cases, a poem. He had improvised it magisterially in the ten minutes preceding his departure. Denis and Mr. Scogan strolled back together from the gates of the courtyard, whence they had bidden their last farewells; on the writing-table in the hall they found the visitor's book, open, and Ivor's composition scarcely dry. Mr. Scogan read it aloud: — Aldous Huxley

Behind the footlights there is always the applause, which stimulates the actors. On the screen it is a different matter. — Ivor Novello

Modern invention has been a great leveler. A machine may operate far more quickly than a political or economic measure to abolish privilege and wipe out the distinctions of class or finance. — Ivor Brown

If you put everyone else first you'll always be last, but if you always put yourself first you will never last. — Ivor W. Hartmann

I began my career with infantile dreams of becoming a composer. — Ivor Novello

Britain's counterespionage officers saw signs of treachery in everything Ivor Montagu did: they saw it in his friends, his appearance, his opinions, and his behavior. But above all, they saw it in his passionate, and dubious, love of table tennis. — Ben Macintyre

A visit to a cinema is a little outing in itself. It breaks the monotony of an afternoon or evening; it gives a change from the surroundings of home, however pleasant. — Ivor Novello

The public must suffer untold pangs from the stiffness, the deliberate stifling of emotion, on the part of many British actors. — Ivor Novello

The beautiful heroine might be thinking, How long must I bury my face on this wretched man's shoulder? Such is not the always the case, but quite often it is. — Ivor Novello

Mathematics is one of the most basic
and most ancient
types of knowledge. Yet the details of its historical development remain obscure to all but a few specialists. — Ivor Grattan-Guinness

Why are you afraid of death?

Because you don't understand the perfect love of Jesus.
Because perfect love casts out
fear. — Ivor Myers

There is an atmosphere about the picture theatre that speaks of entertainment and relaxation. The charming surroundings, good music, and the fact that each visitor is determined to enjoy a few hours of holiday all exert an influence on the mind. — Ivor Novello

To hunt words is to do no trespass. — Ivor Brown

There's nothing quite like a Scotch education. One is left with an irreparable debt. My head is full of irregular verbs still. — Ivor Cutler

A book is a machine to think with, but it need not, therefore, usurp the functions either of the bellows or the locomotive. — Ivor A. Richards

In the mind of all the English soldiers there is absolutely no hate for the Germans, but a kind of brotherly though slightly comtemptuous kindness - as to men who are going through a bad time as well as ourselves. — Ivor Gurney

The songs I had are withered Or vanished clean. Yet there are bright tracks Where I have been. — Ivor Gurney

The best thing about being dead is you no longer have to say 'I wish I were dead.'
The best thing about being alive is that you can still say 'I wish I were dead' — Ivor Cutler

Love-making is an art which must be studied. — Ivor Novello

Every blessed one of you feels better for that burst of laughter. — Ivor Novello

In addition, the teaching of theories from axioms, or some close imitation of them such as the basic laws of an algebra, is usually an educational disaster. — Ivor Grattan-Guinness

An experience has to be formed, no doubt, before it is communicated, but it takes the form it does largely because it may have to be communicated. — Ivor A. Richards

The inconvenience, the glaring lights, the long hours of waiting, and the repetition of every scene are all calculated to defeat anything more than a real mastery of love technique. — Ivor Novello

It has been argued that British girls are incapable of deep feeling or brilliant acting owing to their lack of temperament. This, I am positive, is not true. — Ivor Novello

What's your usual gig?"

"Physical fitness coach. I find it rather humdrum. Your assignment will be a welcome break in the quotidian ennui. — Julian May

After the war, in which I served as a pilot in the Air Force, I took up films. — Ivor Novello

There's something Vichy about the French. — Ivor Novello

I'm sure there isn't an after-life. If there were, Ivor Novello would have got a message to us. — John Gielgud

I was stuck on the side of a mountain in Scotland. I was looking down on emptiness. I lay on my back and looked around in panic. I prayed to God and relaxed. I realised if I turned carefully on my front I could see bits of grass to hold on to. — Ivor Cutler

The crowd may be influenced easily, largely because it is a crowd. — Ivor Novello

There are very few misanthropes, thank goodness! — Ivor Novello

Poetry is capable of saving us. — Ivor A. Richards

When the cinematograph first made its appearance, we were told that the days of the ordinary theatre were numbered. — Ivor Novello

We were asked to believe that the variety and the novelty of even the crude films of the early days would provide a means of entertainment which would cut out the stage. — Ivor Novello

How do you know
you're a girl?
I'm wearing a frock.
And if you take
it off?
I get cold, so I put
it back on.
If I was a boy,
I don't know what
I'd do. — Ivor Cutler

You cannot isolate yourself from the crowd - even if you want to. — Ivor Novello

Imperfection is an end. Perfection is only an aim. — Ivor Cutler

I do not know what dust is, I do not know where it comes from, I only know that it settles on things. I cannot see it in the air, or watch it fall. Sometimes Im home all day but I never see it sliding about looking for a place to rest when my back is turned. Does it wait til I go out? Or, does it happen in the night when I sleep? Dust is not fussy about the places it chooses, though it seems to prefer still objects. Sometimes, out of kindness, I let it lie for weeks. On some places it will lie forever. However, dust holds no grudges and once removed it will always return, in a friendly way. — Ivor Cutler

A book is a machine to think with. — Ivor A. Richards

The chief lesson to be learnt from it is the futility of all argumentation that precedes understanding. We cannot profitably attack any opinion until we have discovered what it expresses as well as what it states. — Ivor A. Richards

Television, they say, will permit a person to be entertained at home, without the effort of going to a picture house, without the trouble of booking seats, without the presence of other people. — Ivor Novello

A sense of beauty is every hindrance to a soldier; yet there would be no soldiers - or none such soldier had not men dead and living cherished and handed on the sacred fire. — Ivor Gurney

This essay is intended to serve as a reminder that immense and threatening divisions in mankind can spring from differences between virtues as well as from envies and greeds. When the virtues on each part are largely inapprehensible by the other, the danger is heightened by Man's natural fear of what he does not understand, and his inclination to suppose it not worth understanding. To attack it easier than to study. There are also, in this case of China and the West, intense and complex cultural vanities on both sides to be taken into account: vanities largely inexplicable the one to the other... — Ivor A. Richards

The cinema is an institution nowadays, with its roots sunk deep in the hearts of the millions of people who find enjoyment and entertainment in going to the pictures. — Ivor Novello

Actors who are lovers in real life are often incapable if playing the part of lovers to an audience. It is equally true that sympathy between actors who are not lovers may create a temporary emotion that is perfectly sincere. — Ivor Novello

For some moments the two men sat quietly, each wrapped in his own thoughts, then Ivor rose. 'I should speak to Levon about tomorrow's hunt,' he said. 'Sixteen [eltors], I think.'
'At least,' the shaman said in an aggrieved tone. 'I could eat a whole one myself. We haven't feasted in a long time, Ivor.'
Ivor snorted. 'A very long time, you greedy old man. Twelve whole days ... why aren't you fat?'
'Becaues,' the wisest one explained patiently, 'you never have enough food at the feasts. — Guy Gavriel Kay

A couple of seats at a good picture house cost comparatively little but give a generous return in the shape of freshened minds and freedom from the worries that even the best regulated homes cannot always avoid. — Ivor Novello

The average person is gregarious; there is something in the spirit of the crowd that adds to the enjoyment of entertainment. — Ivor Novello

From the 3rd century onwards, orthodox Christianity, based on a Hebrew story and worshipping the Jew Jesus, also led many campaigns of anti-Semitism. — Ivor Grattan-Guinness