Rebecca West Quotes

Quotes about:

• I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

  Rebecca West

  Girly, Time, Peace

  The Clarion, 14 Nov. 1913

  83 Copy quote

• The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

  Rebecca West

  Strength, Success, Encouraging

  31 Copy quote

• Bad art is maintained by the neurotic, who is deadly afraid of authentic art because it inspires him to go on living, and he is terrified of life.

  Rebecca West

  Art, Inspire, Goes On

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews”, p.113, Open Road Media

  5 Copy quote

• The general tendency [is] to be censorious of the vices to which one has not been tempted.

  Rebecca West

  Vices, Tendencies, Tempted

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Thinking Reed”, p.193, Open Road Media

  6 Copy quote

• God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.

  Rebecca West

  Funny, Sarcastic, Women

  The Strange Necessity (1928) "The Tosh Horse"

  91 Copy quote

• Whatever happens, never forget that people would rather be led to perdition by a man, than to victory by a woman.

  Rebecca West

  Men, People, Victory

  22 Copy quote

• Women know the damnation of charity because the habit of civilization has always been to throw them cheap alms rather than give them good wages.

  Rebecca West

  Civilization, Giving, Justice

  1912 'The Personal Service Association: Work for Idle Hands to Do', in The Clarion,13 Dec.

  4 Copy quote

• What is art? It is not decoration. It is the re-living of experience.

  Rebecca West

  Art, Decoration

  Rebecca West (2007). “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon”, p.1127, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

• You must always believe that life is as extraordinary as music says it is.

  Rebecca West

  Life, Believe, Extraordinary

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Fountain Overflows”, p.153, Open Road Media

  19 Copy quote

• The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots.

  Rebecca West

  Women, Differences, Idiot

  63 Copy quote

• Charity is an ugly trick. It is a virtue grown by the rich on the graves of the poor. Unless it is accompanied by sincere revolt against the present social system, it is a cheap moral swagger. In former times it was used as fire insurance by the rich, but now that the fear of Hell has gone along with the rest of revealed religion, it is used either to gild mean lives with nobility or as a political instrument.

  Rebecca West

  Mean, Fire, Justice

  Rebecca West, Jane Marcus (1982). “The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”, New York : Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

• The choice between law and justice is an easy one for courageous minds.

  Rebecca West

  Law, Justice, Choices

  Rebecca West (1982). “The young Rebecca: writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”, Not Avail

  8 Copy quote

• The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.

  Rebecca West

  Truth, Simple, Men

  Rebecca West (2011). “The Meaning of Treason”, p.426, Open Road Media

  32 Copy quote

• All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretence that pain is the proper price of any good thing.

  Rebecca West

  Pain, Good Things, Western

  Rebecca West (2010). “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia”, p.474, Open Road Media

  7 Copy quote

• Did St. Francis preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.

  Rebecca West

  Peace, Cat, Bird

  Rebecca West (2012). “The Saga of the Century: The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund”, p.491, Open Road Media

  16 Copy quote

• If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

  Rebecca West

  Time, Race, Ideas

  10 Copy quote

• the law, like art, is always vainly racing to catch up with experience.

  Rebecca West

  Art, Law, Racing

  Rebecca West (2011). “The Meaning of Treason”, p.93, Open Road Media

  7 Copy quote

• There is no logical reason why the camel of great art should pass through the needle of mob intelligence.

  Rebecca West

  Art, Camels, Reason Why

  Rebecca West (1928). “The strange necessity: essays by Rebecca West”

  56 Copy quote

• No great thing happens suddenly.

  Rebecca West

  Change, Great Things, Happens

  Rebecca West (1982). “The young Rebecca: writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”, Not Avail

  7 Copy quote

• Existence in itself, taken at its least miraculous, is a miracle.

  Rebecca West

  Taken, Miracle, Existence

  Rebecca West (1982). “Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

• I have no faith in the sense of comforting beliefs which persuade me that all my troubles are blessings in disguise.

  Rebecca West

  Blessing, Comforting, Belief

  Rebecca West (2005). “Woman as Artist and Thinker”, p.23, iUniverse

  8 Copy quote

• Art is not a luxury, but a necessity.

  Rebecca West

  Art, Luxury, Art Is

  Rebecca West (2010). “The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews”, p.110, Open Road Media

  12 Copy quote

• It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.

  Rebecca West

  Passion, Destiny, Soul

  Rebecca West (1982). “The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”

  22 Copy quote

• There is, of course, no reason for the existence of the male sex except that one sometimes needs help with moving the piano.

  Rebecca West

  Sex, Moving, Men

  6 Copy quote

• I do not think women understand how repelled a man feels when he sees a woman wholly absorbed in what she is thinking, unless it is about her child, or her husband, or her lover. It ... gives one gooseflesh.

  Rebecca West

  Children, Husband, Men

  4 Copy quote

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