The Well of Loneliness Quotes

“The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth. ”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“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.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“You're neither unnatural, nor abominable, nor mad; you're as much a part of what people call nature as anyone else; only you're unexplained as yet--you've not got your niche in creation. But some day that will come, and meanwhile don't shrink from yourself, but face yourself calmly and bravely. Have courage; do the best you can with your burden. But above all be honourable. Cling to your honour for the sake of those others who share the same burden. For their sakes show the world that people like you and they can be quite as selfless and fine as the rest of mankind. Let your life go to prove this--it would be a really great life-work, Stephen.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“For the sake of all the others who are like you, but less strong and less gifted perhaps, many of them, it's up to you to have the courage to make good.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Do try to remember this: even the world's not so black as it is painted"
-Valerie to Stephen (pg. 408)”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Too late, too late, your love gave me life. Here am I the creature you made through your loving; by your passion you created the thing that I am. Who are you to deny me the right to love? But for you I need never have known existence.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“I want you to be wise for your own sake, Stephen, because at the best life requires great wisdom. I want you to learn to make friends of your books; someday you may need them, because – ’ He hesitated, ‘because you mayn’t find life at all easy, we none of us do, and books are good friends.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“And her eyes filled with heavy, regretful tears, yet she did not quite know for what she was weeping. She only knew that some great sense of loss, some great sense of incompleteness possessed her, and she let the tears trickle down her face, wiping them off one by one with her finger.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“And so blinded was she by those gleams of glory which the stars fling into the eyes of young lovers, that she saw perfection where none existed..." p146”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Give us also the right to our existence!”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Life's not all beer and skittles”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“she took what she gave and she gave what she took, yes, but sometimes she gave just a little bit more – and that little bit more is the whole art of teaching, the whole art of living, in fact, and Miss Puddleton knew it.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“But now, here she was, very wishful to pray, while not knowing how to explain her dilemma: ‘I’m terribly unhappy, dear, unprobable God—’ would not be a very propitious beginning.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“The eye of youth is very observant. Youth has its moments of keen intuition, even normal youth -- but the intuition of those who stand mi-way between the sexes is so ruthless, so poignant, so deadly, as to be in the nature of an added scourge...”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Ugly, degrading, rather terrible half-truths... It is bad for the soul to know itself a coward, it is apt to take refuge in mere wordy violence... Their hearts ached while their lips formed recriminations. Their hearts burst into tears while their eyes remained dry and accusing, staring in hostility and anger... They could not forgive and they could not sleep, for neither could sleep without the other's forgiveness, and the hatred that leapt out at moments between them would be drowned in the tears that their hearts were shedding.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“The eyes of the young are drawn to the stars, and the spirit of youth is seldom earth-bound.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Then Stephen must tell her the cruel truth, she must say: ‘I am one of those whom God marked on the forehead. Like Cain, I am marked and blemished. If you come to me, Mary, the world will abhor you, will persecute you, will call you unclean. Our love may be faithful even unto death and beyond — yet the world will call it unclean. We may harm no living creature by our love; we may grow more perfect in understanding and in charity because of our loving; but all this will not save you from the scourge of a world that will turn away its eyes from your noblest actions, finding only corruption and vileness in you. You will see men and women defiling each other, laying the burden of their sins upon their children. You will see unfaithfulness, lies and deceit among those whom the world views with approbation. You will find that many have grown hard of heart, have grown greedy, selfish, cruel and lustful; and then you will turn to me and will say: “You and I are more worthy of respect than these people. Why does the world persecute us, Stephen?” And I shall answer: “Because in this world there is only toleration for the so-called normal.” And when you come to me for protection, I shall say: “I cannot protect you, Mary, the world has deprived me of my right to protect; I am utterly helpless, I can only love you”.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“this is only the beginning. Many die, many kill their bodies and souls, but they cannot kill the justice of God, even they cannot kill the eternal spirit. From their very degradation that spirit will rise up to demand of the world compassion and justice”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Outrageous...that wilfully selfish tyranny of silence evolved by a crafty old ostrich of a world for its own well-being and comfort.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“In her they instinctively sensed an outlaw, and theirs was the task of policing nature.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Since this is a hard and sad truth for the telling; those whom nature has sacrificed to her ends--her mysterious ends that often lie hidden--are sometimes endowed with a vast will to loving, with an endless capacity for suffering also, which must go hand in hand with their love." p 146”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“as things turned out her choice had been happy, for seldom had two people loved more than they did; they loved with an ardour undiminished by time; as they ripened, so their love ripened with them.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that seeing nothing it might avoid Truth. It said to itself: 'If seeing's believing, then I don't want to see -- if silence is golden, it is also, in this case, very expedient.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“There is something that 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.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Writing, it was like a heavenly balm, it was like the flowing out of deep waters, it was like the lifting of a load from the spirit; it brought with it a sense of relief, of assuagement. One could say things in writing without feeling self-conscious, without feeling shy and ashamed and foolish -- one could even write of the days of young Nelson, smiling a very little as one did so.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“…we’re all part of nature. Some day the world will recognize this…”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Stephen, why are you shivering?'
'I don't know, my darling.'
'Mary, why are you crying?'
'I don't know, Stephen.'
p424”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“She loved deeply, far more deeply than many a one who could fearlessly proclaim himself a lover. Since this is a hard and sad truth for the telling; those whom nature has sacrificed to her ends--her mysterious ends that often lie hidden--are sometimes endowed with a vast will to loving, with an endless capacity for suffering also, which must go hand in hand with their love.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Oh, yes -- very easy to talk about death, but not so easy to manage the dying.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness