A. N. Wilson quotes

Brain power improves by brain use, just as our bodily strength grows with exercise. And there is no doubt that a large proportion of the female population, from school days to late middle age, now have very complicated lives indeed. (A. N. Wilson)
Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it. View quote
A. N. Wilson
The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational. View quote
A. N. Wilson
Anti-Semitism is extremely common. View quote
A. N. Wilson
In universities and intellectual circles, academics can guarantee themselves popularity - or, which is just as satisfying, unpopularity - by being opinionated rather than by being learned. View quote
A. N. Wilson
The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together. View quote
A. N. Wilson
It is the woman - nearly always - in spite of all the advances of modern feminism, who still takes responsibility for the bulk of the chores, as well as doing her paid job. This is true even in households where men try to be unselfish and to do their share. View quote
A. N. Wilson
A busybody's work is never done. View quote
A. N. Wilson
The latest research has revealed that women have a higher IQ than men. View quote
A. N. Wilson
I think one of the very frightening things about the regime of the National Socialists is that it made people happy. View quote
A. N. Wilson
If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that's obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that's honey. (A. N. Wilson)
It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective. View quote
A. N. Wilson
I am shy to admit that I have followed the advice given all those years ago by a wise archbishop to a bewildered young man: that moments of unbelief 'don't matter,' that if you return to a practice of the faith, faith will return. View quote
A. N. Wilson
IQ in general has improved since tests first began. Psychologists think that this is because modern life becomes ever more complicated. View quote
A. N. Wilson
I might be deceiving myself but I do not think that I do have an inordinate fear of death. View quote
A. N. Wilson
If you read about Mussolini or Stalin or some of these other great monsters of history, they were at it all the time, that they were getting up in the morning very early. They were physically very active. They didn't eat lunch. View quote
A. N. Wilson
Iris Murdoch did influence my early novels very much, and influence is never entirely good. View quote
A. N. Wilson
On the rare occasions when I spend a night in Oxford, the keeping of the hours by the clock towers in New College, and Merton, and the great booming of Tom tolling 101 times at 9 pm at Christ Church are inextricably interwoven with memories and regrets and lost joys. The sound almost sends me mad, so intense are the feelings it evokes. View quote
A. N. Wilson
In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all. View quote
A. N. Wilson
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life. View quote
A. N. Wilson
I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher. (A. N. Wilson)
I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them. View quote
A. N. Wilson
It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics. View quote
A. N. Wilson
The approach of death certainly concentrates the mind. View quote
A. N. Wilson
When Christians start thinking about Jesus, things start breaking down, they lose their faith. It's perfectly possible to go to church every Sunday and not ask any questions, just because you like it as a way of life. They fear that if they ask questions they'll lose their Christ, the very linchpin of their religion. View quote
A. N. Wilson