Rebecca West

Art is not a luxury, but a necessity.

— Rebecca West

The earth itself is slightly resistant to routine.

— Rebecca West

... to lovers innumerable things do not matter.

— Rebecca West

It seemed a good idea at the time.

— Rebecca West

“Human relations are essentially imperfect.”

— Rebecca West

A good cause has to be careful of the company it keeps.

— Rebecca West

“What a gamble it is to have children!”

— Rebecca West

I write books to find out about things.

— Rebecca West

“Thought that is worth calling thought has no mercy on itself, that is the dreadful proof of its quality.”

— Rebecca West

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

— Rebecca West

Nobody ever wrote a good book simply by collecting a number of accurate facts and valid ideas.

— Rebecca West

There are two kinds of imperialists - imperialists and bloody imperialists.

— Rebecca West

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

— Rebecca West

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

— Rebecca West

music is a missionary effort to colonize earth for imperialistic heaven.

— Rebecca West

There is no escape from mystery. It is the character of our being.

— Rebecca West

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

— Rebecca West

A strong hatred is the best lamp to bear in our hands as we go over the dark places of life, cutting…

— Rebecca West

She did not suddenly start being disagreeable this afternoon, she was so good at it, she had evidently practised whatever are the…

— Rebecca West

“She looked as if she were about to burst into tears, but she was wonderful at catching the ball of her own…

— Rebecca West

Now different races and nationalities cherish different ideals of society that stink in each other's nostrils with an offensiveness beyond the power…

— Rebecca West

I do not myself find it agreeable to be 90, and I cannot imagine why it should seem so to other people.…

— Rebecca West

It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to write a…

— Rebecca West

It isn't only living people who die, it is great stretches of living, which can die even when the people who lived…

— Rebecca West

There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow…

— Rebecca West

Woman too commonly commits the sin of self-sacrifice whereby she consents to be sequestered in the home, without intellectual stimulus, so that…

— Rebecca West

Destiny is another name for humanity's half-hearted yet persistent search for death. Again and again peoples have had the chance to live…

— Rebecca West

No one can write a best-seller by taking thought. The slightest touch of insincerity blurs its appeal. The writer who keeps his…

— Rebecca West

Anthologies are mischievous things. Some years ago there was a rage for chemically predigested food, which was only suppressed when doctors pointed…

— Rebecca West

The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of…

— Rebecca West

“Great music is in a sense serene; it is certain of the values it asserts. But it is also in terror, because…

— Rebecca West

domestic work is the most elementary form of labor. It is suitable for those with the intelligence of rabbits. All it requires…

— Rebecca West

One was kind, out of a bounty that could hardly be exhausted, to old governesses and gardeners, who could be relied upon…

— Rebecca West

“What is art? It is not decoration. It is the re-living of experience. The artist says, 'I will make that event happen…

— Rebecca West

Writers on the subject of August Strindberg have hitherto omitted to mention that he could not write. ... Strindberg, who was neither…

— Rebecca West

“Goodness is adorable, and it is immortal. When it is trodden down into the earth it springs up again, and human beings…

— Rebecca West

Only part of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the longer day of happiness, wants to live to…

— Rebecca West

“He is looking down on the two crystal balls that the old man's foul, strong hands have rolled across to him. In…

— Rebecca West

But just as it sometimes happens that the most temperate people, who have never acquired the habit of drinking alcohol, or even…

— Rebecca West

“Allowed to cast themselves for great tragic roles, they were experiencing the exhilaration felt by great tragic actors. It was not lack…

— Rebecca West