The Edwardians QUOTES

1 " It is no good my telling you. One never believes other people's experiencem and one is only very gradually convinced by one's own. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

3 " There is another danger which you can scarcely hope to escape. It is the weight of the past. Not only will you esteem material objects because they are old — I am not superficial enough to reproach you for so harmless a weakness — but, more banefully, you will venerate ideas and institutions because they have remained for a long time in force; for so long a time as to appear to you absolute and unalterable. That is real atrophy of the soul. You inherit your code ready-made. That waxwork figure labelled Gentleman will be forever mopping and mowing at you… You will never wonder why you pursue a certain course of behaviour; you will pursue it because it is the thing to do. And the past is to blame for all this; inheritance, tradition, upbringing; your nurse, your father, your tutor, your public school, Chevron, your ancestors, all the gamut. Even should you try to break loose it will be in vain… though you may wobble in your orbit, you can never escape from it. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

5 " Lovers, or potential lovers, ought never to meet before the afternoon. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

7 " It is no good my telling you. One never believes other people's experiences and one is only very gradually convinced by one's own. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

9 " Only it won’t be an earthquake - not in England, England isn’t seismic - it will be a gradual crumbling. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

11 " Lady Roehampton was not a young woman; but she was still, though not without taking a certain amount of trouble, beautiful. This question of the middle-aged woman’s beauty and desirability has never sufficiently been exploited by novelists. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

13 " Usted me ha deslumbrado, le he admirado, le he contemplado y he pensado en usted, en cierto modo le he venerado casi, no me importa reconocerlo, pero eso no es lo mismo que estar enamorada. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians

15 " Aparentemente no tenía opiniones: no tenía más que estados de ánimo a cuya intensidad arrolladora solo igualaba la velocidad con la que sucedían. No se acostumbraba a su impermanencia; cualquiera que fuera su condición mental del momento, al instante creía ver en ella una visión asentada de la vida. Súbitamente alarmado cuando ese estado le abandonaba, enseguida pasaba a otro, con olvidadizo optimismo. "

― Vita Sackville-West , The Edwardians