Edith Sitwell Quotes

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I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

Edith Sitwell

Patience, Stupid, Ignorance

"The Last Years of a Rebel: A Memoir of Edith Sitwell". Book by Elizabeth Salter, 1967.

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The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

Edith Sitwell

Truth, Believe, Media Control

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.3, A&C Black

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Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell

Home, Winter, Weather

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.176, A&C Black

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My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

Edith Sitwell

Funny, Music, Reading

Reader's Digest, Volume 111, No. 666, October 1977.

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I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish.

Edith Sitwell

Women, Eels, People

Attributed to Edith Sitwell in Life Magazine, January 4, 1963.

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Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?

Edith Sitwell

Success, Being Yourself, Secret

"Edith Sitwell, a Unicorn Among Lions". Book by Victoria Glendinning (p. 54), 1981; later quoted in "An Uncommon Scold" edited by Abby Adams (p. 74), November 1, 1989.

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When we think of cruelty, we must try to remember the stupidity, the envy, the frustration from which it has arisen.

Edith Sitwell

Frustration, Thinking, Envy

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.172, A&C Black

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I'm dying, but otherwise I'm in very good health.

Edith Sitwell

Dying, Good Health, Very Good

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Rhythm is one of the principal translators between dream and reality.

Edith Sitwell

Dream, Reality, Rhythm

Edith Sitwell (2011). “A Poet's Notebook”, p.25, A&C Black

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All great art contains an element of the irrational.

Edith Sitwell

Art, Elements, Irrational

Edith Sitwell (Dame), Elizabeth Salter, Allanah Harper (1976). “Edith Sitwell: fire of the mind : an anthology”, Michael Joseph

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There is no truth. Only points of view.

Edith Sitwell

Truth, Views, Point Of View

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Poetry ennobles the heart and the eyes, and unveils the meaning of all things upon which the heart and the eyes dwell. It discovers the secret rays of the universe, and restores to us forgotten paradises.

Edith Sitwell

Heart, Eye, Secret

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I wouldn't dream of following a fashion... how could one be a different person every three months?

Edith Sitwell

Dream, Fashion, Different

"The Last Years of a Rebel : A Memoir of Edith Sitwell" by Elizabeth Salter, (p. 24), 1967.

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Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.

Edith Sitwell

Believe, Pride, Men

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.114, A&C Black

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If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?

Edith Sitwell

Trying, Looks, Pekingese

Edith Sitwell (Dame), Elizabeth Salter, Allanah Harper (1976). “Edith Sitwell: fire of the mind : an anthology”, Michael Joseph

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Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.

Edith Sitwell

Fashion, Vices, Taste

"The Last Years of a Rebel: A Memoir of Edith Sitwell". Book by Edith Sitwell, 1967.

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I have never, in all my life, been so odious as to regard myself as 'superior' to any living being, human or animal. I just walked alone - as I have always walked alone.

Edith Sitwell

Animal, Being Human, Humans

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.15, A&C Black

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My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life.

Edith Sitwell

Life, Art, Hymns

Dame Edith Sitwell (1952). “Selected Poems”

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The child and the great artist -- these alone receive the sensation fresh as it was at the beginning of the world.

Edith Sitwell

Children, Artist, World

Edith Sitwell (2011). “Taken Care Of: An Autobiography”, p.125, A&C Black

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The poet is the complete lover of mankind.

Edith Sitwell

Lovers, Poet, Mankind

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What is the special privilege of youth? It is, I think, the power of looking forward, the firm belief that the future holds something that is worth possessing, and that, therefore, one can let the present moment drop from one without regret and without fear.

Edith Sitwell

Regret, Thinking, Special

Edith Sitwell (Dame), Elizabeth Salter, Allanah Harper (1976). “Edith Sitwell: fire of the mind : an anthology”, Michael Joseph

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All great poetry is dipped in the dyes of the heart.

Edith Sitwell

Heart, Poetry, Great Poet

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By 'happiness' I do not mean worldly success or outside approval, though it would be priggish to deny that both these things are most agreeable. I mean the inner consciousness, the inner conviction that one is doing well the thing that one is best fitted to do by nature.

Edith Sitwell

Happiness, Mean, Would Be

Edith Sitwell (Dame), Elizabeth Salter, Allanah Harper (1976). “Edith Sitwell: fire of the mind : an anthology”, Michael Joseph

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It is hardly respectable to be good nowadays.

Edith Sitwell

Integrity, Ethics, Be Good

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I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish.

Edith Sitwell

Eels, Pool, Catfish

Attributed to Edith Sitwell in Life Magazine, January 4, 1963.

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Born: September 7, 1887
Died: December 9, 1964
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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