Virginia Woolf Quotes

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you ca... -Virginia Woolf

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

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a for... -Virginia Woolf

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

Discovering the context

This quote suggests that humor is often lost or difficult to convey when translating or using a foreign language. It implies that humor is highly context-dependent and can be challenging to transfer between cultures.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if o... -Virginia Woolf

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

Why are women... so much more interesting to men t... -Virginia Woolf

Why are women... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?

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This quote raises the question of why men tend to find women more captivating or intriguing than women find men, highlighting differences in attraction and the complexities of human relationships.

Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.

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.

It seems as if an age of genius must be succeeded by an age of endeavour; riot and extravagance by cleanliness and hard work.

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to ... -Virginia Woolf

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

Discovering the context

This quote expresses the personal preference of the speaker in seeking solace, guidance, or support, suggesting that while some may turn to religious figures for assistance, others find comfort and companionship in the company of friends, likening friendship to a source of emotional nourishment or inspiration.

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the sub... -Virginia Woolf

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Let a man get up and say, Behold, this is the truth, and instantly I perceive a sandy cat filching a piece of fish in the background. Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.

It's not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it's the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

I read the book of Job last night, I don't think G... -Virginia Woolf

I read the book of Job last night, I don't think God comes out well in it.

Discovering the context

This quote offers a critical perspective on the portrayal of God in the biblical Book of Job. It suggests that the speaker finds fault or dissatisfaction with how God is depicted in the narrative, highlighting the complexities of interpreting religious texts.

The beauty of the world, which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

When the shriveled skin of the ordinary is stuffed out with meaning, it satisfies the senses amazingly.

I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure - the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.

For what Harley Street specialist has time to understand the body, let alone the mind or both in combination, when he is a slave to thirteen thousand a year?

Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.

Really I don't like human nature unless all candie... -Virginia Woolf

Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art.

A woman must have money and a room of her own if s... -Virginia Woolf

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best pro... -Virginia Woolf

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

That great Cathedral space which was childhood.

Discovering the context

This quote metaphorically describes childhood as a vast and magnificent space comparable to a grand cathedral, symbolizing the profound and formative experiences that shape a person during their early years.

There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who ... -Virginia Woolf

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us sh... -Virginia Woolf

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.

Virginia Woolf Quotes

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