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Rebecca West

Rebecca West Quotes

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Famous Rebecca West Quotes

“Destiny is another name for humanity's half-hearted yet persistent search for death. Again and again peoples have had the chance to live and show what would happen if human life were irrigated by continual happiness; and they have preferred to blow up the canals and perish of drought.”

IfsHumansShowsHappensHumanityNamesChanceHalfDestinyBlowHuman LifeLife And DeathAgain And AgainPersistentHeartedDroughtCanalsHalf Hearted
Book:Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia
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“Writers on the subject of August Strindberg have hitherto omitted to mention that he could not write. ... Strindberg, who was neither a good nor a wise man, had a stroke of luck. He went mad. He lost the power of inhibition. Everything down to the pettiest suspicion that the dog had been given the leanest mutton chop, poured out of his lips. Men of his weakness and sensuality are usually, from their sheer brutishness, unable to express themselves. But Strindberg was mad and articulate. That is what makes him immortal.”

MenWritingLostGivenWiseSubjectsDogWeaknessCriticismLuckMadLipsSensualityImmortalSuspicionSheerStrokesAugustInhibitionsMutton
Author:Rebecca West
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“Mr. Arnold Bennett feels he has ranked himself for ever as a dry wine by what he mixed with himself of Maupassant; nevertheless he has put on the market some grocer's Sauterne in the form of several novels that are highly sentimental so far as their fundamental balance of values is concerned.”

FeelsFormValuesNovelBalanceConcernedFundamentalsWineDryNeverthelessSentimentalGrocers
Book:The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews
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“Olive Schreiner is less a woman than a geographical fact. Just as one thinks of Egypt as a foreground for the Pyramids, so South Africa seems the setting of that warm, attractive, aggressive personality. Her work is far inferior to her.”

ThinkingFactsSeemsPersonalitySouthWarmSettingSettingsAttractiveAggressiveSouth AfricaInferiorsEgyptPyramidsOlivesForeground
Book:The young Rebecca: writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17
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“sentences were used by man before words and still come with the readiness of instinct to his lips. They, and not words, are the foundations of all language. ... Your cat has no words, but it has considerable feeling for the architecture of the sentence in relation to the problem of expressing climax.”

MenStillsFeelingsProblemUsedLanguageCatRelationFoundationInstinctLipsSentencesArchitectureReadinessClimax
Book:The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews
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“If there is to be any romance in marriage woman must be given every chance to earn a decent living at other occupations. Otherwise no man can be sure that he is loved for himself alone, and that his wife did not come to the Registry Office because she had no luck at the Labour Exchange.”

IfsMenRomanceGivenChanceWifeOfficeLuckDecentLabourOccupationRomance In Marriage
Book:The young Rebecca: writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17
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“Mozart eliminates the idea of haste from life. His airs could not lag as they make their journey through the listener's attention; they are not the right shape for loitering. But it is as true that they never rush, they are never headlong or helter-skelter, they splash no mud, they raise no dust.”

IdeasAttentionMusicAirJourneyShapesRaisesDustListenersMudHasteLag
Book:Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia
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“Neurotics, who cause less distress to themselves and their neighbours than those in the other category, are at war with their own natures. Their right hands are in conflict with their left. Psychotics, and it is those who commit purposeless crimes and prefer death to life, are at war with their environment. Right and left hands strike against the womb that carries them.”

WarHandsLeftCausesPsychologyEnvironmentCrimeConflictStrikesCommitCarrieCategoriesDistressWombNeighbourLeft Hand
Book:The meaning of treason
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“If ever peace is to be imposed on the world it will only be because a large number of men who could have taken part in the drill display by the Guards or Marines or at the Royal Tournament turn that strength and precision to the service of life.”

IfsMenWorldTurnsPeaceNumbersTakenDisplayRoyalMarineTournamentsPrecisionLarge NumbersDrills
Book:Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia
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