A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned things is ample.
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

All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.
Rebecca West

Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience.
Rebecca West

Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.
Rebecca West

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.
Rebecca West

But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example.
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

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

God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.
Rebecca West


Great music is in a sense serene; it is certain of the values it asserts.
Rebecca West

He is every other inch a gentleman.
Rebecca West

Humanity is never more sphinxlike than when it is expressing itself.
Rebecca West

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.
Rebecca West

I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
Rebecca West

I wonder if we are all wrong about each other, if we are just composing unwritten novels about the people we meet?
Rebecca West

I write books to find out about things.
Rebecca West

International relationships are preordained to be clumsy gestures based on imperfect knowledge.
Rebecca West

It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one into disaster.
Rebecca West

It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk.
Rebecca West