Muriel Spark

One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.

Art and religion first; then philosophy; lastly science. That is the order of the great subjects of life, that's their order of importance.

Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.

A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

I used to think it a pity that her mother rather than she had not thought of birth control.

All my pupils are the creme de la creme. Give me a girl of an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.

So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to silence.

To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion.

I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work.

Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.

I wouldn't take the Pope too seriously. He's a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.

One should only see a psychiatrist out of boredom.

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.

If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic.

It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.