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The Well of Loneliness QUOTES

The Well of Loneliness QUOTES

1 " But now, here she was, very wishful to pray, while not knowing how to explain her dilemma: ‘I’m terribly unhappy, dear, unprobable God—’ would not be a very propitious beginning. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

2 " What a terrible thing could be freedom. Trees were free when they were uprooted by the wind; ships were free when they were torn from their moorings; men were free when they were cast out of their homes—free to starve, free to perish of cold and hunger. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

3 " For the sake of all the others who are like you, but less strong and less gifted perhaps, many of them, it's up to you to have the courage to make good. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

4 " this is only the beginning. Many die, many kill their bodies and souls, but they cannot kill the justice of God, even they cannot kill the eternal spirit. From their very degradation that spirit will rise up to demand of the world compassion and justice "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

5 " The eye of youth is very observant. Youth has its moments of keen intuition, even normal youth -- but the intuition of those who stand mi-way between the sexes is so ruthless, so poignant, so deadly, as to be in the nature of an added scourge... "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

6 " Too late, too late, your love gave me life. Here am I the creature you made through your loving; by your passion you created the thing that I am. Who are you to deny me the right to love? But for you I need never have known existence. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

7 " The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

8 " You're neither unnatural, nor abominable, nor mad; you're as much a part of what people call nature as anyone else; only you're unexplained as yet--you've not got your niche in creation. But some day that will come, and meanwhile don't shrink from yourself, but face yourself calmly and bravely. Have courage; do the best you can with your burden. But above all be honourable. Cling to your honour for the sake of those others who share the same burden. For their sakes show the world that people like you and they can be quite as selfless and fine as the rest of mankind. Let your life go to prove this--it would be a really great life-work, Stephen. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

9 " If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

10 " And her eyes filled with heavy, regretful tears, yet she did not quite know for what she was weeping. She only knew that some great sense of loss, some great sense of incompleteness possessed her, and she let the tears trickle down her face, wiping them off one by one with her finger. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

11 " And so blinded was she by those gleams of glory which the stars fling into the eyes of young lovers, that she saw perfection where none existed..." p146 "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

12 " I want you to be wise for your own sake, Stephen, because at the best life requires great wisdom. I want you to learn to make friends of your books; someday you may need them, because – ’ He hesitated, ‘because you mayn’t find life at all easy, we none of us do, and books are good friends. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

13 " Life's not all beer and skittles "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

14 " Ugly, degrading, rather terrible half-truths... It is bad for the soul to know itself a coward, it is apt to take refuge in mere wordy violence... Their hearts ached while their lips formed recriminations. Their hearts burst into tears while their eyes remained dry and accusing, staring in hostility and anger... They could not forgive and they could not sleep, for neither could sleep without the other's forgiveness, and the hatred that leapt out at moments between them would be drowned in the tears that their hearts were shedding. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

15 " she took what she gave and she gave what she took, yes, but sometimes she gave just a little bit more – and that little bit more is the whole art of teaching, the whole art of living, in fact, and Miss Puddleton knew it. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

16 " Outrageous...that wilfully selfish tyranny of silence evolved by a crafty old ostrich of a world for its own well-being and comfort. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

17 " Give us also the right to our existence! "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

18 " In her they instinctively sensed an outlaw, and theirs was the task of policing nature. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

19 " Since this is a hard and sad truth for the telling; those whom nature has sacrificed to her ends--her mysterious ends that often lie hidden--are sometimes endowed with a vast will to loving, with an endless capacity for suffering also, which must go hand in hand with their love." p 146 "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness

20 " The eyes of the young are drawn to the stars, and the spirit of youth is seldom earth-bound. "

― Radclyffe Hall , The Well of Loneliness