Memory is a magnet. It will pull to it and hold only material nature has designed it to attract. – Jessamyn West
A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself. – Jessamyn West
We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions. – Jessamyn West
The sick soon come to understand that they live in a different world from that of the well and that the two cannot communicate. – Jessamyn West
You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it. – Jessamyn West
There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive. – Jessamyn West
If you train people properly, they won’t be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier. – Jessamyn West
I’ve done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt. – Jessamyn West
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking. – Jessamyn West
The West is color. Its colors are animal rather than vegetable, the colors of earth and sunlight and ripeness. – Jessamyn West
It is very east to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own. – Jessamyn West
