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Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf Quotes

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Famous Virginia Woolf Quotes

“Well, I’ve had my fun; I’ve had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging baskets of pale geraniums. And it was smashed to atoms—his fun, for it was half made up, as he knew very well; invented, this escapade with the girl; made up, as one makes up the better part of life, he thought—making onself up; making her up; creating an exquisite amusement, and something more. But odd it was, and quite true; all this one could never share—it smashed to atoms.”

WellsMadeGirlFunHalfShareCreatingOddAtomsPaleAmusementExquisiteParts Of LifeBasketsEscapade
Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
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“Twice Flush had done his utmost to kill his enemy; twice he had failed. And why had he failed, he asked himself? Because he loved Miss Barrett. Looking up at her from under his eyebrows as she lay, severe and silent on the sofa, he knew that he must love her for ever. Things are not simple but complex. If he bit Mr. Browning he bit her too. Hatred is not hatred; hatred is also love.”

IfsDoneBitsSimpleEnemyMissingHatredLaysSilentComplexesSevereEyebrowsSofas
Book:Flush
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“For some time she observed a great yellow butterfly, which was opening and closing its wings very slowly on a little flat stone. "What is it to be in love?" she demanded, after a long silence; each word as it came into being seemed to shove itself out into an unknown sea. Hypnotized by the wings of the butterfly, and awed by the discovery of a terrible possibility in life, she sat for some time longer. When the butterfly flew away, she rose, and within, her two books beneath her arm returned again, much as a soldier prepares for battle.”

LittlesLongTwoBookSilenceSeaPossibilityArmsTerribleBattleDiscoveryStonesWingsRoseSoldierOpeningSatFlatsYellowButterflyClosingFlewLong Silence
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
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“Listening (had there been any one to listen) from the upper rooms of the empty house only gigantic chaos streaked with lightning could have been heard tumbling and tossing, as the winds and waves disported themselves like the amorphous bulks of leviathans whose brows are pierced by no light of reason, and mounted one on top of another, and lunged and plunged in the darkness or the daylight (for night and day, month and year ran shapelessly together) in idiot games, until it seemed as if the universe were battling and tumbling, in brute confusion and wanton lust aimlessly by itself.”

IfsYearsHas BeensReasonLightTogetherNightUniverseGamesHouseRoomsDarknessHeardWindListeningMonthsEmptyChaosWaveLustConfusionIdiotRanLightningCould Have BeenBrutesBrowsDaylightWantonTumblingLeviathanEmpty Houses
Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
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“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.”

WritingHumansLongSaidMatterHandsAgeUsedWishHoursWealthVisionSacrificeHairMereDisasterUsed To BeColourComparisonSilverPotShadeProfessorsBitesSleevesChastityMeasuringTreacheryFleasDeferenceHeadmasters
Book:A room of one's own and other essays
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“While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace.”

KnowsMenWayMindMaySpeakDarkDarknessHumilityFameIndependenceTruthfulObscureWrapsMistObscurityMerciful
Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
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“It was love, she thought, love that never clutch its object; but, like the love which mathematicians bear their symbols, or poets their phrases, was meant to be spread over the world and become part of human gain. The world by all means should have shared it, could Mr Bankes have said why that woman pleased him so; why the sight of her reading a fairy tale to her boy had upon him precisely the same effect as the solution of a scientific problem.”

WorldShouldHumansMeanSaidProblemReadingBoysEffectsObjectsPoetBearsSolutionsGainsShould HaveSightSpreadTalesSymbolsPhrasesFairyMeant To BeFairy TaleMathematicianWere Meant To BeClutch
Book:Ao farol: To the lighthouse: Edição bilíngue português - inglês
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“I have sometimes dreamt ... that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards -- their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble -- the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.”

NeedsGivingLooksBookSometimesCertainTurnsReadingNamesArmsJudgmentRewardsEnvyLawyerDawnPeterCrownsAlmightyMarbleStatesmenConquerorLaurels
Book:Collected essays
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“Every season is likeable, and wet days and fine, red wine and white, company and solitude. Even sleep, that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life, can be full of dreams; and the most common actions──a walk, a talk, solitude in one’s own orchard──can be enhanced and lit up by the association of the mind. Beauty is everywhere, and beauty is only two finger’s-breadth from goodness.”

MindTwoDreamActionJoySleepWhiteWalksCommonCompanyFineSolitudeGoodnessRedSeasonsWineFingersAssociationWetLitJoy Of LifeBreadthOrchardLikeableRed Wine
Author:Virginia Woolf
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“A very elementary exercise in psychology, not to be dignified by the name of psycho-analysis, showed me, on looking at my notebook, that the sketch of the angry professor had been made in anger. Anger had snatched my pencil while I dreamt. But what was anger doing there? Interest, confusion, amusement, boredom--all these emotions I could trace and name as they succeeded each other throughout the morning. Had anger, the black snake, been lurking among them? Yes, said the sketch, anger had.”

MadeSaidNamesBlackInterestEmotionMorningPsychologyExerciseAngryConfusionAnalysisBoredomProfessorsSnakesPencilsAmusementNotebookPsychoLurking
Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
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“Now to sum it up,' said Bernard. 'Now to explain to you the meaning of my life. Since we do not know each other (though I met you once I think, on board a ship going to Africa), we can talk freely. The illusion is upon me that something adheres for a moment, has roundness, weight, depth, is completed. This, for the moment, seems to be my life. If it were possible, I would hand it you entire. I would break it off as one breaks off a bunch of grapes. I would say, "Take it. This is my life.”

IfsThinkingKnowsSaidMomentsHandsSeemsBreakMetsIllusionWeightDepthBunchShipsBoardsGrapesBreak Off
Book:The Waves
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“I want to think quietly, calmly, spaciously, never to be interrupted, never to have to rise from my chair, to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts.”

ThinkingWantHardFactsOne ThingObstaclesDeeperSurfaceChairsSlipsHostilityInterrupted
Book:The Mark on the Wall and Other Short Fiction
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