Vita And Violet Quotes

Heaven preserve me from littleness and pleasantness and smoothness. Give me great glaring vices, and great glaring virtues, but preserve me from the neat little neutral ambiguities. Be wicked, be brave, be drunk, be reckless, be dissolute, be despotic, be a suffragette, be anything you like, but for pity's sake be it to the top of your bent. Live fully, live passionately, live disastrously. Let's live, you and I, as none have ever lived before. (- to Vita Sackville-West, October 25, 1918)

...How I adore you and want you. You can't know how much...I love belonging to you-- I glory in it, that you alone have bent me to your will, shattered my self-possession, robbed me of my mystery, and made me yours, so that away from you I am nothing but a useless puppet, an empty husk.

Be wicked, be brave, be drunk, be reckless, be dissolute, be despotic, be an anarchist, be a religious fanatic, be a suffragette, be anything you like, but for pity’s sake be it to the top of your bent — Live — live fully, live passionately, live disastrously if necessary. Live the gamut of human experiences, build, destroy, build up again! Live, let’s live, you and I — let’s live as none ever lived before, let’s explore and investigate, let’s tread fearlessly where even the most intrepid have faltered and held back!

I want you. I want you hungrily, frenziedly, passionately. I am starving for you, if you must know it. Not only the physical you, but your fellowship, your sympathy, the innumerable points of view we share. I can’t exist without you, you are my affinity…I want you for my own, I want to go away with you. I must and will and damn the world and damn the consequences and anyone had better look out for themselves who dares to become an obstacle in my path.

Nothing and no one in the world could kill the love I have for you. I have surrendered my whole individuality, the very essence of my being to you. I have given you my body time after time to treat as you pleased. All the hoardings of my imagination I have laid bare to you. There isn't a recess in my brain into which you haven't penetrated. I have clung to you and caressed you and slept with you and I would like to tell the whole world that I clamour for you. You are my lover and I am your mistress, and kingdoms and empires and governments have tottered and succumbed before now to that mighty combination-- the most powerful in the world.

Harold Nicholson later wrote to Vita, "When you fall into Violet's hands, you become like a jellyfish addicted to cocaine.

I wonder,” said Angelina, sitting on the loveseat next to Violet, “if he is mentally fragile.” “What do you mean?” said Violet. “He fought in the war,” replied Angelina. “He might fall apart, fly off the handle, go off the rails…

Russell’s lips were just framing an expression of disapproval when Grace stepped around Violet. His pupils expanded, making his dark eyes look even darker. There was something almost greedy in this look he bestowed on Grace. --Farewell My Life: Buona Notte Vita Mia

Sic Vita I am a parcel of vain strivings tied By a chance bond together, Dangling this way and that, their links Were made so loose and wide, Methinks, For milder weather. A bunch of violets without their roots, And sorrel intermixed, Encircled by a wisp of straw Once coiled about their shoots, The law By which I'm fixed. A nosegay which Time clutched from out Those fair Elysian fields, With weeds and broken stems, in haste, Doth make the rabble rout That waste The day he yields. And here I bloom for a short hour unseen, Drinking my juices up, With no root in the land To keep my branches green, But stand In a bare cup. Some tender buds were left upon my stem In mimicry of life, But ah! the children will not know, Till time has withered them, The woe With which they're rife. But now I see I was not plucked for naught, And after in life's vase Of glass set while I might survive, But by a kind hand brought Alive To a strange place. That stock thus thinned will soon redeem its hours, And by another year, Such as God knows, with freer air, More fruits and fairer flowers Will bear, While I droop here.

« Siete pronte? » domandò alla fine Klaus. « No » rispose Sunny. « Neanch'io » disse Violet, « ma se aspettiamo di essere pronti aspetteremo tutta la vita. Andiamo ».

Married to Leonard Woolf in 1912 in a partnership that continued until her death in 1941, Virginia Woolf had intense and enduring relationships with a number of women friends, including Violet Trefusis, the writer Vita Sackville-West and the composer Ethel Smyth, as well as a lifelong bond with her elder sister, the artist Vanessa Bell

He wasn’t quite what you’d hoped for, was he, Mother dear?” remarked Violet. “I was trying to help you,” said Angelina, her cheeks warming. Violet folded her arms and gave her a look. “I’m never going to invite him again.” Angelina weaved unsteadily on her high heels as she made her way towards the stairs and the privacy of her dingy room. “You won’t have to,” replied Violet. “He’ll be back. --Farewell My Life: Buona Notte Vita Mia

«Pensi di poter semplicemente ritornare nella mia vita e che io mi getti nel tuo letto come se niente fosse?». Il suo sguardo crebbe nuovamente d’intensità. «Se potessi buttarti nel mio letto in questo momento sapendo che ci rimarresti? Lo farei in un attimo, Violet».

Violet sprecava così tante energie preoccupandosi di ciò che pensavano gli altri. La sua perdita mi ha fatto realizzare che sprechiamo tutti troppo tempo dietro cose futili. Non volevo guardarmi indietro e pensare di non aver vissuto la vita che volevo.

I must go through life a jack of all trades, and wanting. Am I to be cursed with dilettantism till I die? [...] Am I, the most inveterate and consistent worshipper of the shrine of Beauty in all my life never to accomplish something beautiful?