“To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.”

— Anthony Burgess, "The Ball is Free to Roll", Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (1986)

About Anthony Burgess

1917 – 1993

English novelist, author of "A Clockwork Orange".

“Home to people like me is not a place but all places, all places except the one we happen to be in at the moment.”

“The important thing is to get yourself born. You’re entitled to that. But you’re not entitled to life.”

“It is man's job to be curious; it is man's job to try to find out the truth about the world about us.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”