Now different races and nationalities cherish different ideals of society that stink in each others nostrils with an offensiveness beyond the power of any but the most monstrous private deed. – Rebecca West
Did St Francis preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats. – Rebecca West
Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being ones own Trojan horse. – Rebecca West
Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a persons mind. – Rebecca West
The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots. – Rebecca West
Everyone realizes that one can believe little of what people say about each other. But it is not so widely realized that even less can one trust what people say about themselves. – Rebecca West
Great music is in a sense serene it is certain of the values it asserts. – Rebecca West
Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul. – Rebecca West
International relationships are preordained to be clumsy gestures based on imperfect knowledge. – Rebecca West
There is no logical reason why the camel of great art should pass through the needle of mob intelligence. – Rebecca West
It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk. – Rebecca West
There is no wider gulf in the universe than yawns between those on the hither and thither side of vital experience. – Rebecca West
A strong hatred is the best lamp to bear in our hands as we go over the dark places of life, cutting away the dead things men tell us to revere. – Rebecca West
Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience. – Rebecca West
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. – Rebecca West
I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value. – Rebecca West
He is every other inch a gentleman. – Rebecca West
Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space. – Rebecca West
It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to write a historical work. He would then realize that the human race is in quite a jam about truth. – Rebecca West
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide. – Rebecca West
