Decay

Famous quotes containing the word decay:

    It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    She is a prude in her own defence ... under the specious mask of propriety, she conceals the decay of her worn-out charms.
    Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)

    But I must needs take my petulance, contrasting it with my accustomed morning hopefulness, as a sign of the ageing of appetite, of a decay in the very capacity of enjoyment. We need some imaginative stimulus, some not impossible ideal which may shape vague hope, and transform it into effective desire, to carry us year after year, without disgust, through the routine- work which is so large a part of life.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)