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
Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a persons mind. – Rebecca West
Great music is in a sense serene it is certain of the values it asserts. – 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
One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, – to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary, to collect sagas and heap cairns. This instinct as to the enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization. – John Jay Chapman, Memories and Milestones