Katherine Mansfield quotes
1888 – 1923 · New Zealand / Europe, 20th century · Modernist short-story writer
About Katherine Mansfield
Born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp in Wellington in 1888, she moved to Europe in 1908 and, until her death in 1923 near Fontainebleau, published influential story collections (Bliss; The Garden Party) that favored shifting perception, fragmentary structure and open endings.
Works: In a German Pension; Bliss and Other Stories; The Garden Party and Other Stories
Quotes
“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”
Source: The Journal of Katherine Mansfield, journal entry 14 October 1922 (published 1927) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is documented as a Katherine Mansfield journal entry dated 14 October 1922 and published posthumously in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927).
- What remains uncertain
- Minor textual variants are recorded (e.g. “those other voices” vs “those voices”); these reflect editorial transmission, not a different author.
A compact call to honest courage: choose what your conscience demands, not what others expect. Written as a private imperative, it presses creative and moral authenticity over public approval. The lines come from Mansfield’s personal journal.