The Thinking Reed Quotes

“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this.”
― Rebecca West, The Thinking Reed

“It struck her that the difference between men and women is the rock on which civilization will split before it can reach any goal that could justify its expenditure of effort.”
― Rebecca West, The Thinking Reed

“The moment ached, as if music were being played somewhere on an instrument whose strings had some connexion with her heart.”
― Rebecca West, The Thinking Reed

“It was the same when they sat in his office, a stupendous apartment designed in that modernist style which represents the last attempt of bad taste to escape the criticisms of good taste.”
― Rebecca West, The Thinking Reed

“She had treated her life as a room that had to be completely refurnished.”
― Rebecca West, The Thinking Reed