Submission to poverty is the unpardonable sin against the body. Submission to unhappiness is the unpardonable sin against the spirit. Rebecca West More Quotes by Rebecca West More Quotes From Rebecca West Reason's a thing we dimly see in sleep. Rebecca West reason sleep All gambling is the telling of a fortune, but of a monstrously depleted fortune, empty of everything save one numerical circumstance, shorn of all such richness as a voyage across the water, a fair man that loves you, a dark woman that means you harm. Rebecca West dark love-you mean I've never been able to do just one draft. That seems a wonderful thing. Do you know anyone who can? Rebecca West able knows wonderful But once a culture develops sufficiently to become skeptical, the idea of censorship becomes less attractive. To suppress a book or a picture or a sculpture or a play or a film is a terrible act of aggression against the artist who created it. This is a miming of capital punishment; it destroys the life that has been emanated by a life. Rebecca West punishment artist book For the sake of my country, and perhaps a little for the sake of my soul, I have given up the deep peace of being in opposition. Rebecca West soul littles country When anything important has to be written ... I think your hand concentrates for you. Rebecca West important hands thinking I do not myself find it agreeable to be 90, and I cannot imagine why it should seem so to other people. It is not that you have any fears about your own death, it is that your upholstery is already dead around you. Rebecca West upholstery imagine people After any disturbance (such as two world wars coinciding with a period of growing economic and monetary incomprehensibility) we find our old concepts inadequate and look for new ones. But it unfortunately happens that the troubled times which produce an appetite for new ideas are the least propitious for clear thinking. Rebecca West war ideas thinking Behind it was that vast suspension bridge which always troubles me because it reminds me that in this mechanized age I am as little able to understand my environment as any primitive woman who thinks that a waterfall is inhabited by a spirit, and indeed less so, for her opinion might from a poetical point of view be correct. Rebecca West bridges views thinking I have never been able to write with anything more than the left hand of my mind; the right hand has always been engaged in something to do with personal relationships. I don't complain, because I think my left hand's power, as much as it has, is due to its knowledge of what my right hand is doing. Rebecca West writing hands thinking 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 husband men children Idiocy is the female defect ... It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy. Rebecca West idiocy males female Unhappy people are dangerous. Rebecca West unhappiness unhappy people There was too much hatred in the world; it was manifestly as dangerous as gunpowder, yet people let it lie about, in the way of ignition. Rebecca West hate lying people To make laws is a human instinct that arises as soon as food and shelter have been ensured, among all peoples, everywhere. Rebecca West shelter instinct law music is a missionary effort to colonize earth for imperialistic heaven. Rebecca West effort music heaven Where there is real love one wants to go to church first. Rebecca West church real want Music is part of human life and partakes of the human tragedy. There is much more music in the world than is allowed to change into heard sounds and prove its point. Rebecca West music tragedy sound If I do not do sensible things about investments I shall spend my old age in a workhouse, where nobody will understand my jokes. Rebecca West investment age sensible The mind is its own enemy, that fights itself with the innumerable pliant and ineluctable arms of the octopus. Rebecca West octopus fighting mind
