Quotes from Virginia Woolf

absolutely superb, thought Peter Walsh, swaying

Eyes—wild, laughing, yet desperate—

To follow her thought was like following a voice which speaks too quickly to be taken down by one's pencil, and the voice was her own voice saying without prompting undeniable, everlasting, contradictory things.

The compensation of growing old, Peter Walsh thought, coming out of Regent's Park, and holding his hat in hand, was simply this; that the passions remain as strong as ever, but one has gained-at last! — the power which adds the supreme flavour to existence, — the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it round, slowly, in the light.

Non c'era nessuno che lei rispettasse e venerasse come rispettava e venerava lui. Era prontissima a fidarsi di quel che diceva lui, rispose. […] andavano da lei, spontaneamente, perché lei era una donna, tutto il giorno, con questa o quella richiesta; uno voleva una cosa, un altro un'altra; i ragazzi crescevano; a volte le sembrava di non essere altro che una spugna imbevuta di emozioni umane.

He remembered that, after digging for a little, the water oozes round your finger-tips; the hole then becomes a moat; a well; a spring; a secret channel to the sea.

There was no treachery too base for the world to commit; she knew that.

I know what loves trembling into fire; how jealousy shoots its green flashes hither and thither; how intricately love crosses love; love makes knots; love brutally tears them apart. I have been knotted, I have been torn apart.

Charlotte Brontë, with all her splendid gift for prose, stumbled and fell with that clumsy weapon in her hands. George Eliot committed atrocities with it that beggar description. Jane Austen looked at it and laughed at it and devised a perfectly natural, shapely sentence proper for her own use and never departed from it. Thus, with less genius for writing than Charlotte Brontë, she got infinitely more said.

There was no treachery too base for the world to commit; she knew that. No happiness lasted; she knew that.

He saw a child dipping a can into a bright-green stream and asked if they drank that water. Yes, and washed in it too, for the landlord only allowed water to be turned on twice a week. Such sights were the more surprising, because one might come upon them in the most sedate and civilised quarters of London—"the most aristocratic parishes have their share." Behind Miss Barrett's bedroom, for instance, was one of the worst slums in London.

one must pay back from this secret deposit of exquisite moments, she thought

That was the worst of growing up, she thought; they couldn't share things as they used to share them.

Mr. Denham cursed himself very sharply for having exchanged the freedom of the street for this sophisticated drawing-room

Tudo parece significar tantas coisas (...)

La muerte era desafío. La muerte era -por parte de personas que sentían la imposibilidad de alcanzar el centro que, místicamente, se les escapaba, que vivían una proximidad convertida en lejanía, un éxtasis desvirtuado, que se quedaban solas- un intento de comunicar. Había un abrazo en la muerte.

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

What they were all afraid of saying, was that happiness is dirt cheap. You can have it for nothing. Beauty.

For the truth is (let her ignore it) that human beings have neither kindness, nor faith, nor charity beyond what serves to increase the pleasure of the moment. They hunt in packs, Their packs scour the desert and vanish screaming into the wilderness. They desert the fallen. They are plastered over with grimaces.

La libertad intelectual depende de cosas materiales. La poesía depende de la libertad intelectual. Y las mujeres siempre han sido pobres, no sólo durante doscientos años, sino desde el principio de los tiempos.

Si doveva avere la tempra di una testa calda per dire a se stesse, Oh, ma non possono comprare anche la letteratura. La letteratura è aperta a tutti. Non ti riconosco l'autorità, anche se sei il guardiano, di scacciarmi dal prato. Chiudete pure a chiave le vostre biblioteche se volete, ma non c'è cancello, serratura o chiavistello che possiate mettere alla libertà della mia mente.

Era amore, si disse […] amore che non cercava mai di afferrare il suo oggetto; ma, come l'amore che i matematici portano alle formule, o i poeti alle loro frasi, era destinato a diffondersi su tutto il mondo e a diventare parte della ricchezza umana.

And Oliver, rising, could hear the rustle of the dress of the Duchess as she came down the passage.

Now all the candles were lit, and the faces on both sides of the table were brought nearer by the candle light, and composed, as they had not been in the twilight, into a party round a table