The true solitary ... will feel that he is himself only when he is alone; when he is in company he will feel that he perjures himself, prostitutes himself to the exactions of others; he will feel that time spent in company is time lost; he will be conscious only of his impatience to get back to his true life.
Vita Sackville-WestTravel 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.
Vita Sackville-WestI suppose the pleasure of the country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidences of the determination to live. That is a truism when said, but anything but a truism when daily observed. Nothing shows up the difference between the thing said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.
Vita Sackville-WestThings were not tragic for us then, because although we cared passionately we didn't care deeply.
Vita Sackville-WestI just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. Oh my dear, I canโt be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly.You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I donโt love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defences. And I donโt really resent it.
Vita Sackville-West