In my time and neighborhood (and in my soul) there was only one standard by which a woman measured success: did some man want her? – Jessamyn West
The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future. – Jessamyn West
Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection the past then lives in your words and you are free. – Jessamyn West
There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive. – Jessamyn West
I am now to offer some thoughts upon that sameness or familiarity which we frequently find between passages in different authors without quotation. This may be one of three things either what is called Plagiarism, or Imitation, or Coincidence. – James Boswell, “The Hypochondriack,” No.XXII, 1779