Vera Brittain Quotes

Quotes about:

• The pacifist's task today is to find a method of helping and healing which provides a revolutionary constructive substitute for war.

  Vera Brittain

  Peace, War, Healing

  Vera Brittain (1964). “The Rebel Passion: A Short History of Some Pioneer Peacemakers”, London : G. Allen & Unwin

  68 Copy quote

• It is probably true to say that the largest scope for change still lies in men's attitude to women, and in women's attitude to themselves.

  Vera Brittain

  Attitude, Lying, Men

  Vera Brittain (1953). “Lady Into Woman: A History of Women from Victoria to Elizabeth II”

  24 Copy quote

• Modern war and modern civilisation are utterly incompatible...one or the other must go.

  Vera Brittain

  War, Modern, Civilisation

  31 Copy quote

• There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see.

  Vera Brittain

  Truth, Abiding, May

  29 Copy quote

• Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.

  Vera Brittain

  Expression, Political, Immature

  Rebel Passion (1964) ch. 1

  32 Copy quote

• I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on, no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case of musterd gas - the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great musterd coloured suppurating blisters, with blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying their throats are closing and they know they will choke.

  Vera Brittain

  War, Eye, Writing

  25 Copy quote

• It never seems to occur to anybody that some women may not want to find husbands.

  Vera Brittain

  Husband, May, Want

  Vera Brittain (2009). “Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study Of The Years 1900-1925”, p.408, Hachette UK

  13 Copy quote

• All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.

  Vera Brittain

  Peace, Hate, Order

  "What Can We Do In Wartime?", September 9, 1939.

  20 Copy quote

• Meek wifehood is no part of my profession; / I am your friend, but never your possession.

  Vera Brittain

  Possession, Meek, Profession

  "Married Love". Poems of the War and After, 1934.

  8 Copy quote

• I thought that spring must last forevermore, For I was young and loved, and it was May.

  Vera Brittain

  Spring, May, Lasts

  Vera Brittain (2008). “Because You Died: Poetry and Prose of the First World War and After”, Virago Press

  16 Copy quote

• The best prose is written by authors who see their universe with a poet’s eyes.

  Vera Brittain

  Eye, Poet, Prose

  Vera Brittain (1948). “On being an author”

  15 Copy quote

• I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.

  Vera Brittain

  Break Up, Husband, Reading

  "Violets and Vinegar". Book by Jilly Cooper and Tom Hartman, "The Battle Done", 1980.

  19 Copy quote

• An author who waits for the right 'mood' will soon find that 'moods' get fewer and fewer until they cease altogether.

  Vera Brittain

  Waiting, Mood, Fewer

  Vera Brittain (1947). “On becoming a writer”

  19 Copy quote

• few things are more rewarding than a child's open uncalculating devotion.

  Vera Brittain

  Children, Devotion

  17 Copy quote

• I can think of few important movements for reform in which success was won by any method other than that of an energetic minority presenting the indifferent majority with a fait accompli, which was then accepted.

  Vera Brittain

  Thinking, Important, Majority

  Vera Brittain (2005). “One Voice: Pacifist Writings from the Second World War”, p.42, A&C Black

  11 Copy quote

• Most men, whether men or women, wish above all else to be comfortable, and thought is a pre-eminently uncomfortable process; it brings to the individual far more suffering than happiness in a semi-civilised world which still goes to war.

  Vera Brittain

  War, Men, Suffering

  13 Copy quote

• We should never be at the mercy of Providence if only we understood that we ourselves are Providence.

  Vera Brittain

  Mercy, Should, Providence

  Vera Brittain (2009). “Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study Of The Years 1900-1925”, p.337, Hachette UK

  15 Copy quote

• The tragedy of journalism lies in its impermanence; the very topicality which gives it brilliance condemns it to an early death. Too often it is a process of flinging bright balloons in the path of the hurricane, a casting of priceless petals upon the rushing surface of a stream.

  Vera Brittain

  Lying, Rushing, Giving

  Vera Brittain (2012). “Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby”, p.229, Hachette UK

  15 Copy quote

• I don't think victory over death... is anything so superficial as a person fulfilling their normal span of life. It can be twofold; a victory over death by the man who faces it for himself without fear, and a victory by those who, loving him, know that death is but a little thing compared with the fact that he lived and was the kind of person he was.

  Vera Brittain

  Men, Thinking, Victory

  Winifred Holtby, Vera Brittain (1960). “Selected letters of Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain, 1920-1935”

  14 Copy quote

• most of us have to be self-righteous before we can be righteous.

  Vera Brittain

  Self, Self Righteous, Righteousness

  12 Copy quote

• Babies are a nuisance, of course. But so does everything seem to be that is worth while – husbands and books and committees and being loved and everything. We have to choose between barren ease and rich unrest – or rather, one does not choose.

  Vera Brittain

  Baby, Children, Husband

  15 Copy quote

• College is a secluded life of scholastic vegetation

  Vera Brittain

  College, Vegetation, Scholastics

  5 Copy quote

• Nevertheless, hateful as saying 'No' always is to an imaginative person, and certain as the offence may be that it will cause to individuals whose own work does not require isolated effort, the writer who is engaged on a book must learn to say it. He must say it consistently to all interrupters; to the numerous callers and correspondents who want him to speak, open bazaars, see them for 'only' ten minutes, attend literary parties, put people up, or read, correct and find publishers for semi-literate manuscripts by his personal friends.

  Vera Brittain

  Book, Party, People

  11 Copy quote

• The joys of motherhood are not excessively apparent during the first few weeks of a baby's life.

  Vera Brittain

  Baby, Motherhood, Joy

  5 Copy quote

• Definite gifts render their possessors capable of overcoming any obstacle this side of death; they create an impetus of far more genuine value than external advantages in some other career where the impulse to make use of them remains weak or non-existent. The work that one enjoys is the greatest source of happiness and vitality in life.

  Vera Brittain

  Work, Passion, Careers

  Vera Brittain (1947). “On becoming a writer”

  10 Copy quote

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