I used to think it a pity that her mother rather than she had not thought of birth control.
Muriel Spark

Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.
Muriel Spark

To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion.
Muriel Spark

Art and religion first; then philosophy; lastly science. That is the order of the great subjects of life, that's their order of importance.
Muriel Spark

One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.
Muriel Spark

If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic.
Muriel Spark

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.
Muriel Spark

I wouldn't take the Pope too seriously. He's a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.
Muriel Spark