Jessamyn West Quotes

A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself.
Jessamyn West

Humor, Sense, Joke

Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
Jessamyn West

Imagination, Reality, Fiction

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

Ignorance, Two, Young

A broken bone can heal, but the wound a word opens can fester forever.
Jessamyn West

Broken, Word, Forever

It is very east to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
Jessamyn West

Forgiveness, Mistakes, Others

I've done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt.
Jessamyn West

Hurt, Done, Honesty

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

Death, Past, Writing

A rattlesnake that doesn't bite teaches you nothing.
Jessamyn West

Nothing, Bite, Teaches

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.
Jessamyn West

Writing, Talent, Necessary

The sick soon come to understand that they live in a different world from that of the well and that the two cannot communicate.
Jessamyn West

Live, Different, Two

A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.
Jessamyn West

Love, Him, Religious

Groan and forget it.
Jessamyn West

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.
Jessamyn West

Real, Tell, Able

In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults.
Jessamyn West

Children, Nearer, Sympathies

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.
Jessamyn West

History, Work, Future

We can love an honest rogue, but what is more offensive than a false saint?
Jessamyn West

Love, Honest, False

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.
Jessamyn West

Change, Ignore, Facts

A big iron needle stitching the country together.
Jessamyn West

Together, Country, Big

If you want a baby, have a new one. Don't baby the old one.
Jessamyn West

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

Success, Time, Woman

Justice is a terrible but necessary thing.
Jessamyn West

Justice, Necessary, Terrible

Memory is a magnet. It will pull to it and hold only material nature has designed it to attract.
Jessamyn West

Nature, Memory, Hold

Nothing is so dear as what you're about to leave.
Jessamyn West

Nothing, Leave, Dear

Only a fool would refuse to enter a fool's paradise when that's the only paradise he'll ever have a chance to enter.
Jessamyn West

Fool, Chance, Paradise

Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants.
Jessamyn West

Desert, Vegetation

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Author

Born: July 18, 1902

Died: February 23, 1984

Links

Find on Amazon: Jessamyn West

Cite this Page: Citation

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