Winifred Holtby
Winifred Holtby
Winifred Holtbywas an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel South Riding, which was posthumously published in 1936...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth23 June 1898
men tree important
Really, trees are nearly as important as men, and much better behaved.
people mind body
I am much perturbed by this business of sickness. Our bodies seem so easily to leap into the saddle where our minds should be. People who are ill become changelings.
adventure balance world
The world, with all its beauty and adventure, its richness and variety, is darkened by cruelty. Death, if it ends the loveliness, the adventure, ends also that. Death balances the picture.
strong legends defeat
no truth is strong enough to defeat a well-established legend.
hard-work fierce
I am fierce for work. Without work I am nothing.
country mean patriotism
Question everyone in authority, and see that you get sensible answers to your questions ... questioning does not mean the end of loving, and loving does not mean the abnegation of intelligence. Vow as much love to your country as you like ... but, I implore you, do not forget to question.
fate men water
Life flows on over death as water closes over a stone dropped into a pool. ... Fate is certain; death is certain; but the courage and nobility of men and women matter more than these.
happiness frustration reality
Sorrow and frustration have their power. The world is moved by people with great discontents. Happiness is a drug. It can make men blind and deaf and insensible to reality. There are times when only sorrow can give to sorrow.
humor sides needs
A sense of humor is so handy, isn't it? It lets you see both sides of a question so that you never need do anything.
ends brevity-of-life tolerable
it is the brevity of life which makes it tolerable; its experiences have value because they have an end.
stars distance light
We each live in a private, distorted, individual world - stars turning in space, warmed for a moment by each other's light, then lost in infinite distance.
inspirational-life understanding crowns
The crown of life is neither happiness nor annihilation; it is understanding.
hands law unjust
We're so busy resigning ourselves to the inevitable that we don't even ask if it is inevitable. We've got to have courage, to take our future into our hands. If the law is oppressive, we must change the law. If tradition is obstructive, we must break tradition. If the system is unjust, we must reform the system.
animal names dumb
Nature is not silent, and never was a name more derisively inappropriate than when we speak of these non-human creatures who hoot and crow and bray as the dumb animals.