The principle of avoiding the unnecessary expenditure of energy has enabled the species to survive in a world full of stimuli; but it prevents the survival of the aristocracy.
Rebecca WestHuman beings are mercifully so constituted as to be able to conceal from themselves what they intend to do until they are well into the doing of it.
Rebecca WestWithout doubt cats are intellectuals who have been, by some mysterious decree of Providence, deprived of the comfort of the word.
Rebecca WestNo one can write a best-seller by taking thought. The slightest touch of insincerity blurs its appeal. The writer who keeps his tongue in his cheek, who knows that he is writing for fools and that, therefore, he had better write like a fool, makes a respectable living out of serials and novelettes; but he will never make the vast, the blaring, half a million success. That comes of blended sincerity and vitality.
Rebecca West