Vita Sackville-West quotes

Women, like men, ought to have their youth so glutted with freedom they hate the very idea of freedom. (Vita Sackville-West)
I have come to the conclusion after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
A man and his land make a man and his creed. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
All craftsmen share a knowledge. They have held Reality down fluttering to a bench. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong. View quote
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. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Remembrance clamoured in him: 'She was wild and free, Magnificent in giving; she was blind To gain or loss, and, loving, loved but me, - but me! View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Who could so watch, and not forget the rack Of wills worn thin and thought become too frail, Nor roll the centuries back - And feel the sinews of his soul grow hale, And know himself for Rome's inheritor? View quote
Vita Sackville-West
I sing the cycle of my country's year, I sing the tillage, and the reaping sing, Classic monotony, that modes and wars Leave undisturbed, unbettered, for their best Was born immediate, of expediency. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
All her youth is gone, her beautiful youth outworn, Daughter of tarn and tor, the moors that were once her home No longer know her step on the upland tracks forlorn Where she was wont to roam. (Vita Sackville-West)
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Yes, they were kind exceedingly; most mild Even in indignation, taking by the hand One that obeyed them mutely, as a child Submissive to a law he does not understand. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Their strength's eternal in their sight, They overtake the deer in flight, And in their arrogance they smite; But I am sage, if they are strong: Man's love is transient as his death is long. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
The young men strained upon the crank To wring the last reluctant inch. They laughed together, fair and frank, And threw their loins across the winch. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
And what have I to give my friends in the last resort? An awkwardness, a shyness, and a scrap, No thing that's truly me, a bootless waste, A waste of myself and them, for my life is mine And theirs presumably theirs, and cannot touch. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
All her lovers have passed, her beautiful lovers have passed, The young and eager men that fought for her arrogant hand, And the only voice which endures to mourn for her at the last Is the voice of the lonely land. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Forget not bees in winter, though they sleep. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
It is quite true that you have had infinitely more influence on me intellectually than anyone, and for this alone I love you. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
In February, if the days be clear, The waking bee, still drowsy on the wing, Will sense the opening of another year And blunder out to seek another spring. (Vita Sackville-West)
Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Leopards on the gable-ends, Leopards on the painted stair, Stiff the blazoned shield they bear, Or and gules, a bend of vair, Leopards on the gable-ends, Leopards everywhere. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
There are no signposts in the sea. View quote
Vita Sackville-West
Nothing shows up the difference between the things said or read, so much as the daily experience of it. View quote
Vita Sackville-West