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Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West Quotes

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Famous Vita Sackville-West Quotes

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.”

IfsLifeWritingMindMomentsTimeGoneFellowsForgottenMoodScoreHopsPresent MomentSlipsButterfly
Book:Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings
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“It always seemed to me that the herbaceous peony is the very epitome of June. Larger than any rose, it has something of the cabbage rose's voluminous quality; and when it finally drops from the vase, it sheds its petticoats with a bump on the table, all in an intact heap, much as a rose will suddenly fall, making us look up from our book or conversation, to notice for one moment the death of what had still appeared to be a living beauty.”

LooksStillsBookMomentsFallQualityConversationSummerTablesRoseLook UpShedJuneBumpsVasesEpitomeCabbagePeonies
Author:Vita Sackville-West
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“The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change. It is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day by day, until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour.”

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Author:Vita Sackville-West
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“It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears. It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn. Not that I have any objection to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil from what the first hint of autumn means.”

FirstsMeanEndsMomentsLightBearsSummerSeasonsAutumnSeptemberLooking ForwardHintsObjectionsSuggestingAmberRecoilSad Moments
Author:Vita Sackville-West
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