Vernon Lee Quotes

• What being at leisure means is more easily felt than defined.

  Vernon Lee

  Mean, Leisure, Defined

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  45 Copy quote

• There is no end to the deceits of the past.

  Vernon Lee

  Past, Deceit, Ends

  Vernon Lee (1908). “Limbo, and Other Essays: To which is Now Added, Ariadne in Mantua”

  7 Copy quote

• The greatest pleasure of reading consists in re-reading.

  Vernon Lee

  Reading, Pleasure, Pleasure Of Reading

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  9 Copy quote

• Art is the expression of a man's life, of his mode of being, of his relations with the universe, since it is, in fact, man's inarticulate answer to the universe's unspoken message.

  Vernon Lee

  Art, Men, Expression

  Vernon Lee (1909). “Renaissance fancies & studies”

  7 Copy quote

• Despite our complicated civilization, so called, or perhaps on account of it, we are all of us a mere set of barbarians, who find it less trouble to provide a new, cheap, and shoddy thing than to get the full use and full pleasure out of a finely-made and carefully-chosen old one.

  Vernon Lee

  Civilization, Barbarians, Use

  Vernon Lee (1904). “Hortus vitae : essays on the garden of life”

  8 Copy quote

• There is too little courtship in the world. ... For courtship means a wish to stand well in the other person's eyes, and, what is more, a readiness to be pleased with the other's ways; a sense on each side of having had the better of the bargain; an undercurrent of surprise and thankfulness at one's good luck.

  Vernon Lee

  Eye, Good Luck, Mean

  Vernon Lee (1904). “Hortus Vitae: Essays on the Gardening of Life”

  4 Copy quote

• There is an unlucky tendency ... to allow every new invention to add to life's complications, and every new power to increase life's hustling; so that, unless we can dominate the mischief, we are really the worse off instead of the better.

  Vernon Lee

  Hustle, Progress, Add

  Vernon Lee (1904). “Hortus vitae : essays on the garden of life”

  7 Copy quote

• As towards most other things of which we have but little personal experience (foreigners, or socialists, or aristocrats, as the case may be), there is a degree of vague ill-will towards what is called Thinking. ... I am tempted to believe that much of the mischief thus laid at the door of that poor unknown quantity Thinking is really due to its ubiquitous twin-brother Talking.

  Vernon Lee

  Brother, Believe, Thinking

  Vernon Lee (1904). “Hortus Vitae: Essays on the Gardening of Life”

  4 Copy quote

• There is too little courtship in the world.

  Vernon Lee

  World, Littles, Courtship

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  7 Copy quote

• A deal of the world's sound happiness is lost through Shyness.

  Vernon Lee

  Sound, World, Shyness

  Vernon Lee (1929). “A Vernon Lee Anthology: Selections from the Earlier Works”

  6 Copy quote

• poets are privileged to utter more than they can always quite explain, bringing up from the mind's unplumbed depths tokens of the nature of the world we carry within us.

  Vernon Lee

  Poetry, Mind, Depth

  4 Copy quote

• Leisure requires the evidence of our own feelings, because it is not so much a quality of time as a peculiar state of mind. ... What being at leisure means is more easily felt than defined.

  Vernon Lee

  Mean, Feelings, Mind

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  7 Copy quote

• things in this world are very roughly averaged; and although averaging is a useful, rapid way of dispatching business, it does undoubtedly waste a great deal which is too good for wasting.

  Vernon Lee

  Data, Doe, World

  4 Copy quote

• Mankind may be divided into playgoers and not playgoers.

  Vernon Lee

  May, Theater, Mankind

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  6 Copy quote

• Some persons' letters seem almost framed to afford a series of alibis for their personality.

  Vernon Lee

  Personality, Letters, Framed

  Vernon Lee (1907). “Hortus Vitae: And Limbo”

  6 Copy quote

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