Quotes from Radclyffe Hall

our love's nothing but a drop in some vast sea of love—

she was like some curious, primitive thing conceived in a turbulent age of transition.

This is better than being young Nelson,' thought Stephen, ' 'cause this way I'm happy just being myself.

Yes, it was trying to get her under, this world with its mighty self-satisfaction, with its smug rules of conduct, all made to be broken by those who strutted and preened themselves on being what they considered normal. They trod on the necks of those thousands of others who, for God knew what reason, were not made as they were; they prided themselves on their indignation, on what they proclaimed as their righteous judgments.

But presently, huddled beneath the blankets, the child would be soothed by a warm sense of safety, and her nerves would relax, while her body grew limp with the drowsy softness of bed. Then suddently a big and most comforting yawn, and another, and another, until darkness and Collins and tall clocks that menaced, and Stephen herself, were all blended and merged into something quite friendly, a harmonious whole, neither fearful or doubting-the blessed illusion we call sleep.

Joan has a right to love whom she likes, and to go where she likes and to work and be independent and happy, and if she can't be happy then she has a right to make her own unhappiness; it's a thousand times better to be unhappy in your own way than to be happy in someone else's.

No one is useless who can pray, my sister.

The world would condemn but they would rejoice; glorious outcasts, unashamed, triumphant!

I cannot protect you, Mary, the world has deprived me of my right to protect; I am utterly helpless, I can only love you.

I want life, and yet I'm always afraid.

The grey of a bitter, starved-looking morning. The town like a mortally wounded creature, torn by shells, gashed open by bombs. Dead streets - streets of death - death in streets and their houses; yet people still able to sleep and still sleeping.

It is indeed like certain lovely women who, now old, belong to a bygone generation—women who in youth were passionate but seemly; difficult to win but when won, all-fulfilling.

For at moments such is the blindness and folly, yet withal the redeeming glory of love.

Yes, that's why I'm so frightened, you make me feel strong—

Memory, the old room was haunted by it — a man dying with love in his eyes that was deathless — a woman holding him in her arms, speaking words such as lovers will speak to each other. Memory — they're the one perfect thing about me.

Man could not live by darkness alone, one point of light he must have for salvation -- one point of light.

There is something mankind can never destroy in spite of an unreasoning will to destruction, and this is its own idealism, that integral part of its very being.

Do you believe in God, Martin?'And he answered, 'Yes, because of His trees. Don't you?''I'm not sure...''Oh, my poor, blind Stephen! Look again, go on looking until you do believe.

Life's not all beer and skittles

the realization of great mutual love can at times be so overwhelming a thing, that even the bravest of hearts may grow fearful.

Wars come and wars go but the world does not change: it will always forget an indebtedness which it thinks it expedient not to remember.

A great many women can feel and behave like men. Very few of them can behave like gentlemen.

The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth.

What a terrible thing could be freedom. Trees were free when they were uprooted by the wind; ships were free when they were torn from their moorings; men were free when they were cast out of their homes—free to starve, free to perish of cold and hunger.