Dame Ethel Smyth Quotes

A collection of quotes by Dame Ethel Smyth.

Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was an English composer, suffragette, and author. She defied societal expectations by pursuing a career in music composition, studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, and becoming one of the leading composers of her time. Smyth's compositions were powerful and groundbreaking, often referencing her activism for women's suffrage. Aside from her musical achievements, she actively participated in the suffragette movement, even serving time in prison for her involvement. Smyth also penned several books, including her memoir "Female Pipings in Eden." Her contributions to both music and women's rights continue to inspire and resonate today.

Because I have conducted my own operas and love sheep-dogs; because I generally dress in tweeds, and sometimes, at winter afternoon concerts, have even conducted in them; because I was a militant suffragette and seized a chance of beating time to The March of the Women from the window of my cell in Holloway Prison with a tooth-brush; because I have written books, spoken speeches, broadcast, and don't always make sure that my hat is on straight; for these and other equally pertinent reasons, in a certain sense I am well known.

Dame Ethel Smyth

Fame

The habit some writers indulge in of perpetual quotation is one it behooves lovers of good literature to protest against, for it is an insidious habit which in the end must cloud the stream of thought, or at least check spontaneity. If it be true that le style c'est l homme, what is likely to happen if l homme is for ever eking out his own personality with that of some other individual?

Dame Ethel Smyth

Quotations