P. D. James May Quotations

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.

Wars may be fought by decent men, but they're not won by them.

Perfect love may cast our fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love.

A letter is paradoxically the most revealing and the most deceptive of confessional revelations. We all have our inconsistencies, prejudices, irrationalities which, although strongly felt at the time, may be transitory. A letter captures the mood of the moment. The transitory becomes immutably fixed, part of the evidence for the prosecution or the defence.

A picnic may well be a metaphor for life. The essentials for happiness are the right company, moderate if sanguine expectations and a reasonable standard of physical sustenance and comfort, the whole being bedeviled by the belief that there is always something better to be had if only one presses on.

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.

Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.