Skip to content

And yet in a way I would rather fail point blank. Things one can do have no value. I don't mind feeling small myself, but I dread finding the world is.

— Elizabeth Bowen The House in Paris (1935)

Another quote →

More quotes by Elizabeth Bowen

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.

The Death of the Heart (1939)

It is thought that women inspire by their beauty; more often they do so by their longings.

A Time in Rome (1960)

Intimacies between women go backwards, beginning in revelations and ending up in small talk without loss of esteem.

The Death of the Heart (1939)

Experience isn't interesting until it begins to repeat itself — in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience.

The Death of the Heart (1939)

There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.

The House in Paris (1935)

All Elizabeth Bowen quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Elizabeth Bowen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.