"Were I to go down into the market-place,……" — Rebecca West
"Were I to go down into the market-place, armed with the powers of witchcraft, and take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, 'In your lifetime, have you known peace?' wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in his turn to his father, I would never hear the word 'Yes,' if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years. I would always hear, 'No, there was fear, there were our enemies without, our rulers within, there was prison, there was torture, there was violent death."
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Rebecca West
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85 Quotes by Rebecca West
Rebecca West has 85 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Motherhood is neither a duty nor a privilege, but simply the way that humanity can satisfy the desire for physical…
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The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you.
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It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to…
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Women know the damnation of charity because the habit of civilization has always been to throw them cheap alms rather…
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Charity is an ugly trick. It is a virtue grown by the rich on the graves of the poor. Unless…
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There is in every one of us an unending see-saw between the will to live and the will to die.
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Getting a divorce is nearly always as cheerful and useful an occupation as breaking valuable china.
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Those who foresee the future and recognize it as tragic are often seized upon by a madness which forced them…
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There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.
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All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to…
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Of Virginia Woolf: The talent of this generation which is most certain of survival.
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For the sake of my country, and perhaps a little for the sake of my soul, I have given up…
See all 85 quotes by Rebecca West »
More Always Hear Quotes
This quote is filed under Always Hear Quotes,
one of 42 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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For a person as obsessed with music as I am, I always hear a song in the back of my…
— Bjork
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When I was 14, I thought I looked terrible. I wore these typical Slavic shoes with metal bottoms so you…
— Marina Abramovic
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Behind the proscenium arch, you can't always hear what people in the audience are saying.
— Billy Connolly
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I have the worst ear for criticism, even when I have created a stage set I like, I always hear…
— Cecil Beaton
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Always hear the 'Yes' in the 'No'.
— Marshall B. Rosenberg
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You always hear the phrase, money doesn't buy you happiness. But I always in the back of my mind figured…
— Sergey Brin
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We who are quotatious are never truly alone, but always hear the cheerful flow of remarks made by dead writers…
— Joseph Epstein
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When Billie Holiday sings a song, I hear the song, but I always hear her and her truth.
— Tom Wopat
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But there is that certain something about wanting to do the will of God. If one is sincere and if…
— Maria von Trapp
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When there is a river in your growing up, you probably always hear it
— Ann Zwinger
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You always hear these stories of how Hollywood is so merciless on composers and how they all get beaten up.…
— Hans Zimmer
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May I always hear that you are following the guidance of that blessed Spirit that will lead you into all…
— Francis Scott Key
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