Vera Brittain Quotes

“...It is impossible," I concluded, "to find any satisfaction in the thought of 25,000 slaughtered Germans, left to mutilation and decay; the destruction of men as though beasts, whether they be English, French, German or anything else, seems a crime to the whole march of civilization.”
― Vera Brittain

“What is God, and all for which we’re striving?
Sweetest skeptic, we were born for living.
Life is Love, and Love is –
You, dear, you.”
― Roland Leighton

“But this is so no longer, and never will be again, since man's inventions have eliminated so much distance and time; for better, for worse, we are now each of us part of the surge and swell of great economic and political movements, and whatever we do, as individuals or as nations, deeply affects everyone else.”
― Vera Brittain

“Hedauville

The sunshine on the long white road
That ribboned down the hill,
The velvet clematis that clung
Around your window sill,
Are waiting for you still.


Again the shadowed pool shall break,
In dimples round your feet,
And when the thrush sings in your wood,
Unknowing you may meet
Another stranger, sweet.

And if he is not quite as old
As the boy you used to know,
And less proud too, and worthier,
You may not let him go.
(And daisies are truer than passion flowers)
It will be better so.”
― Roland Leighton

“You see, when everything else is gone, there's always work. I don't think anyone ever realises how much work can mean until the other things are gone.”
― Vera Brittain, The Dark Tide

“Men as a rule do everything at women's expense, from their first day to the last. They come into the world at our expense, and at our expense they're able to do whatever work they please uninterrupted. We keep their homes pleasant fro them and provide them with all creature comforts, We satisfy both their loves and their lusts, and at our expense again they have the children they desire. When they's ill we nurse them; they recover at our expense; and when they die, we lay them out and see that they leave the world respectably.
If ever we can get anything out of them, or use them in any way that make things the least bit more even, it's not only our right to do it, it's a duty we owe to ourselves."
[...]"really Virginia, to hear you talk one would think you'd suffered a dreadful injury at the hands of some man or other- and yet you're always telling me that all your best friends were men until the war came".
"So they were," said Virginia. "but all my friends were absolute exceptions to the general run of men".”
― Vera Brittain, The Dark Tide

“Daphne tried to convey to him that the likelihood of degrees for women at Oxford was a matter for satisfaction, perhaps, but hardly for excitement or ratification. Women's accomplishments in the University had long been equal, if not superior, to men's; degrees were not a privilege, they were simply what women deserved - their due, their right. She became very animated as she argued on this topic.”
― Vera Brittain, The Dark Tide