Home / Quotes / Quote by Virginia Woolf

Quote by Virginia Woolf

“Like a ghostly roll of drums remorselessly beat the measure of life.”

Quote by Virginia Woolf

Book:To the Lighthouse

Work

To the Lighthouse

A classic work of modernist literature, the novel delves into the complexities of human relationships and the internal struggles of its characters through the lens of a family's summer vacation at a lighthouse. more

Author

British modernist writer, known for her unique narrative techniques and profound portrayal of female experience. Her works include 'To the Lighthouse' and 'Mrs. Dalloway'. more

You May Also Like

“A whole lifetime was too short to bring out, the full flavour; to extract every ounce of pleasure, every shade of meaning.”

Life Whole Pleasure Lifetime Whole Life Shade Too Short Flavour

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

“The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?”

Ifs Turns Passion Streets Corners London Maps Uncharted

Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

“What could be more serious than the love of man for woman, what more commanding, more impressive, bearing in its bosom the seeds of death; at the same time these lovers, these people entering into illusion glittering eyed, must be danced round with mockery, decorated with garlands.”

People Men Love Serious Lovers Illusion Rounds Seeds Entering Impressive Bosoms Mockery Garlands

Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

“Love had a thousand shapes.”

Love Thousand Shapes

Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

“One could say nothing to nobody. The urgency of the moment always missed its mark. Words fluttered sideways and struck the object inches too low. Then one gave it up; then the idea sunk back again; then one became like most middle-aged people, cautious, furtive, with wrinkles between the eyes and a look of perpetual apprehension. For how could one express in words these emotions of the body? express that emptiness there?”

People Looks Ideas Moments Body Eye Emotion Middle Objects Lows Mark Emptiness Inches Perpetual Cautious Urgency Wrinkles Apprehension Back Again Middle Aged Sideways

Author:Virginia Woolf

“Words, English words, are full of echoes, of memories, of associations. They have been out and about, on people's lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries. And that is one of the chief difficulties in writing them today -- that they are stored with other meanings, with other memories, and they have contracted so many famous marriages in the past.”

People Writing Has Beens Today Past House Memories Marriage Streets Century Fields Difficulty Lips Chiefs Association Echoes English Words

Author:Virginia Woolf

“Madness is terrific I can assure you, and not to be sniffed at; and in its lava I still find most of the things I write about. It shoots out of one everything shaped, final, not in mere driblets, as sanity does.”

Writing Doe Stills I Can Madness Mere Finals Sanity Terrific Lava

Book:The Letters of Virginia Woolf: 1929-1931

Source: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: 1929-1931

“Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in.”

“The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?”

World Raised Whips Mrs Dalloway

Book:Mrs. Dalloway - Broadview Edition

Source: Mrs. Dalloway - Broadview Edition

“Nothing shakes my opinion of a book. Nothing -- nothing. Only perhaps if it's the book of a young person -- or of a friend -- no, even so, I think myself infallible.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Book Young Opinion Shakes Infallible

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)