Quotessence
Home / Authors / Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingIfsPeopleVirginia WoolfMenThinkingMindWorldWomenBook

Famous Virginia Woolf Quotes

“The English tourist in American literature wants above all things something different from what he has at home. For this reason the one American writer whom the English whole-heartedly admire is Walt Whitman. There, you will hear them say, is the real American undisguised. In the whole of English literature there is no figure which resembles his - among all our poetry none in the least comparable to Leaves of Grass”

WantDifferentRealReasonWholeHomeLiteratureFiguresAll ThingsAdmireGrassTouristsWaltLeaves Of GrassAmerican LiteratureEnglish LiteratureAmerican Writer
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
Create image

“Walden - all his books, indeed - are packed with subtle, conflicting, and very fruitful discoveries. They are not written to prove something in the end. They are written as the Indians turn down twigs to mark their path through the forest. He cuts his way through life as if no one had ever taken that road before, leaving these signs for those who come after, should they care to see which way he went.”

IfsWayShouldBookEndsCareTurnsPathTakenCuttingWrittenProveDiscoveryMarkLeavingForestsSubtleTwigs
Book:The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1912-1918
Create image

“Without those forerunners, Jane Austen and the Brontes and George Eliot could no more have written than Shakespeare could have written without Marlowe, or Marlowe without Chaucer, or Chaucer without those forgotten poets who paved the ways and tamed the natural savagery of the tongue. For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.”

PeopleThinkingWayYearsBodyVoiceNaturalCommonBehindsWrittenPoetBirthMassForgottenTongueOutcomesSolitaryMasterpieceJaneAustenSavageryTamedEliotForerunnersBronteChaucerMarlowe
Book:A Room of One's Own
Create image

“No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes. Nothing so cuts at the root of his happiness and fills him with rage as the sense that another rates low what he prizes high. Whigs and Tories, Liberal party and Labour party - for what do they battle except their own prestige? It is not love of truth but desire to prevail that sets quarter against quarter and makes subserviency rather than the triumph of truth and the exaltation of virtue - but these moralities belong, and should be left to the historian, since they are as dull as ditch water.”

MenShouldBelieveDesirePassionLeftWaterPartyVirtueCuttingMoralityBattleLowsRootsStrongerRateRageTriumphDullBreastsLabourPrizeHistorianQuartersPrestigeExaltationLabour PartyLiberal Party
Book:Orlando: A Biography
Create image

“In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female: and in the man's brain, the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain, the woman predominates over the man...If one is a man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties.”

IfsMenMindSaidStillsTwoUseBrainEffectsHe ManFemaleMalesFacultyIntercourseFusionGreat MindsAndrogynous
Author:Virginia Woolf
Create image

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

IfsThinkingLoveWellsSleepFoodHealthEatingCookingCulinaryNutritionChefDessertCuisineDiningGood FoodFood LoveFood And DrinkHealthy EatingEating FoodCookeryFood And EatingGreat FoodHealth FoodItalian FoodFresh FoodDelicious FoodEating HealthyCooking And EatingItalian CookingGood SleepHome CookingSleep WellYummyDeep SleepFavorite FoodsBest FoodCooking LoveGourmet FoodEating WellI Love FoodHunger For FoodGood EatingChefs CookingCooking And LoveSweets And DessertsCulinary LoveFood And LoveEating Healthy FoodDining TableEating GoodFood CultureDine InPerfect FoodSharing FoodGood Eats
Author:Virginia Woolf
Create image

“Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.”

PeopleFriendshipFriendsMy FriendsPriestsReal FriendsMy Best FriendBest FriendMy FriendshipFriends ForeverAbout FriendshipLove And FriendshipFriendship LoveFriendship MemoriesOne Line FriendshipBest FriendshipFriendship DayCute FriendshipInspirational FriendshipFriend LoveGreat FriendshipFunny FriendshipHappy FriendshipHappy Friendship DayBffJust FriendsSweet FriendshipFunny Best FriendReally Cute Best FriendShort FriendBest EverCute Best FriendCute FriendUnique FriendshipShort Best FriendSweet FriendFriendship ForeverAmazing FriendshipGifts From FriendsNice FriendNice FriendshipBff ForeverValued FriendsRomantic Friendship
Book:The Waves
Create image

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”

PeopleIfsInspirationalInspirationLyingHonestyEthicsAddictionEmpoweringTelling The TruthAbout YourselfHonest TruthTruth And HonestyHonesty IntegrityTruth HonestyHonesty And IntegrityTruth Be ToldHonest And IntegrityTelling LiesFinding Out The TruthHonesty InspirationalTruth To Yourself
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
Create image

“As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.”

WorldInspirationalCountryWholeInspirationWomenSuccessfulDiversityIndependentFeministWhole WorldBrotherhoodStrong WomenBeautiful WomenBeing A WomanUnity In DiversitySuccessful WomenInspirational Strong WomenWomen PowerInternational Women's DayWomen EqualityI Am WomanInternational Women DayWomans DayInspirational FeministFamous Women InspirationalMrs DallowayAmbitious WomenProud Woman
Author:Virginia Woolf
Create image

“Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.”

PeopleSoulShowsOneselfStealingDullEmptinessFacultyNervesConformityIndifferentInwardConformDetachmentNumbnessCallousLethargy
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
Create image