Nevil Shute quotes

Nevil Shute was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer, recognized for his gripping stories and technical accuracy. His novels often explore themes of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. He became widely known for works such as “A Town Like Alice” and “On the Beach.” Here are 17 of his quotes:

It has been said that an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound; if that be so, we were certainly engineers.

Nevil Shute

It's no good going on living in the ashes of a dead happiness.

Nevil Shute

It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.

Nevil Shute

Everybody pays lip service to the safety of the aeroplane, but nobody is prepared to pay for it.

Nevil Shute

You cannot argue stupidity, you just have to accept it patiently as one of those things.

Nevil Shute

He was one of that great class of Englishmen who love their wives and trust them unquestioningly with their money and their honour, but are apt to hedge a little over their motor-cars.

Nevil Shute

Aircraft do not crash of themselves. They come to grief because men are foolish, or vain, or lazy, or irresolute or reckless. One crash in a thousand may be unavoidable because God wills it so - not more than that.

Nevil Shute

After two wars, I have been in danger too often to bother very much about being killed, and when it comes, I would prefer that it should happen in an aeroplane, since aeroplanes have been the best part of my life.

Nevil Shute

When I was first sent from H.M.S. King Alfred to be interviewed by Goodeve in the Admiralty, I was furious. The War seemed to me, in June of 1940, to be desperately serious, and England in imminent peril of invasion.

Nevil Shute

His agitation was subsiding; already he was becoming aware that he had not got it in him to make these men believe that what he said was true. He had had so much of this in the past; he was accustomed to being right and being disbelieved on vital issues. It was what happened to him; other people could put across their convictions and win credence, but he had never been able to do that. Now it was happening again.

Nevil Shute

Personal unpleasantness always upset his work; he could not think clearly if his mind was full of hard things that had been said about him, and he liked thinking clearly. Rows frightened him; he would go to considerable lengths to avoid them.

Nevil Shute

They sat by the lake for a couple of hours, talking, finding out about each other.

Nevil Shute

If you're going to make your life in a new country you should go before you're twenty-five. After that you start to get associations, little grooves and anchors, that make it difficult to change.

Nevil Shute

She did not understand what all that meant, but it was evidently something very near his heart, and so she said, "How splendid!"

Nevil Shute

All good designers are difficult men or they could not be good designers; I think everybody at the table was more or less aware of that. We set ourselves to mollify the great man, and I say that with sincerity. A great man he was, a great designer, and a superlative engineer. But not an easy man to deal with. No.

Nevil Shute