Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel.
Vita Sackville-West

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
Vita Sackville-West

I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.
Vita Sackville-West

Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation.
Vita Sackville-West

Nothing shows up the difference between the things said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.
Vita Sackville-West

The writer catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind.
Vita Sackville-West

There are no signposts in the sea.
Vita Sackville-West

Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong.
Vita Sackville-West

What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.
Vita Sackville-West

Women, like men, ought to have their youth so glutted with freedom they hate the very idea of freedom.
Vita Sackville-West