Quotes By Rebecca West

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

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

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

There is no wider gulf in the universe than yawns between those on the hither and thither side of vital experience.

We all drew on the comfort which is given out by the major works of Mozart, which is as real and material as the warmth given up by a glass of brandy.

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

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

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.