30 Memorable Virginia Woolf Quotes About Understanding Life
Last updated on January 2nd, 2024 at 11:37 am
“Virginia Woolf wallpaper“, by Laura Miller, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Born on January 25, 1882, Virginia Woolf was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. She has made an immense contribution to English literature as a writer, essayist, novelist, biographer, and feminist as well. She had a unique and modernist style. Some of her most famous and remarkable works include the novels ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, ‘To the Lighthouse’ and ‘Orlando’, which were highly appreciated and established her reputation as a contemporary writer.
She also became one of the primary subjects of the 70s movement of feminist criticism. Her writings have since gained extensive critique and attention for “inspiring feminism.”
Unfortunately, she lost most of her loved ones. She had a nervous breakdown due to the terrible events in her life. In 1941, she took her own life at the age of 59.
Here are some of the most memorable Virginia Woolf quotes which will inspire you to be yourself in life.
Virginia Woolf Quotes
“Really I don’t like human nature unless it is all candied over with art.”
Virginia Woolf, The Diary of Virginia Woolf (1980)
“Lies will flow from my lips, but there may perhaps be some truth mixed up with them.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929)
“I read the book of Job last night. I don’t think God comes well out of it.”
Virginia Woolf, letter to Lady Robert Cecil, 12 November 1922, in Letters (ed. N. Nicolson and J. Trautmann, 1976) vol. 2
“Nothing thicker than a knife’s blade separates happiness from melancholy.”
Virginia Woolf, Michael H. Whitworth (2014). “Orlando: A Biography”, p.28, Oxford University Press, USA
“Jealousy… survives every other passion of mankind…”
Virginia Woolf, Selected Works of Virginia Woolf (2007 edition), Wordsworth Editions
“Friendships, even the best of them, are frail things.”
“It was the intimacy, a sort of spiritual suppleness, when mind prints upon mind indelibly.”
Virginia Woolf, Selected Works of Virginia Woolf (ed. Wordsworth Editions, 2007)
“To make ideas effective, we must be able to fire them off. We must put them into action.”
Virginia Woolf, Collected essays (ed. 1967)
“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people”.
Virginia Woolf, “The Leaning Tower”, lecture delivered to the Workers’ Educational Association, Brighton (May 1940). – The Moment and Other Essays (1948)
“There is the strange power we have of changing facts by the force of the imagination.”
Virginia Woolf, – Collected essays (ed. 1967)
“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.”
Virginia Woolf
“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.”
“When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness—I am nothing.”
Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (2016). “The Waves”, p.97, Virginia Woolf
“I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond daily life”.
Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (1990). “A moment’s liberty: the shorter diary”, Vintage
“How many times have people used a pen or paintbrush because they couldn’t pull the trigger?”
Virginia Woolf
“Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.”
Virginia Woolf, From her 1929 essay “A Room of One’s Own“
“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.”
Virginia Woolf
“Humour is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.”
“The mind which is most capable of receiving impressions is very often the least capable of drawing conclusions.”
Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader: The second common reader (ed. 1960)
“How lovely goodness is in those who, stepping lightly, go smiling through the world.”
Virginia Woolf, “Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories”, p.33, Courier Corporation
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
Virginia Woolf, Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.610, Wordsworth Editions
“A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.”
Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.2936, Delphi Classics
“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”
Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (2007). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.570, Wordsworth Editions
“I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you’re everything that exists; the reality of everything.”
“To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.”
Virginia Woolf, Hermione Lee (2000). “A room of one’s own and other essays”
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”
Virginia Woolf
“The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.“
Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1857). “Aurora Leigh”, p.25
“Never pretend that the things you haven’t got are not worth having.”
Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (1978). “The Diary of Virginia Woolf: 1920-1924”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
“Someone has to die in order for the rest of us to value life more.”
Virginia Woolf, Francine Prose (2003). “The Mrs. Dalloway reader”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
“The depths of the sea are only water after all.”
Virginia Woolf’s writings give us a completely different outlook on different aspects of life. She often talks about humanity, love, and womanhood.
We hope that these quotes from Virginia Woolf inspire you to think better and understand yourself. What is your biggest takeaway from these Virginia Woolf Quotes? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
If you liked our selection of 30 Memorable Virginia Woolf Quotes, then perhaps you would also enjoy our collection of 30 Powerful Emma Watson Quotes About Feminism.
Sahil Sangidwar
Sahil Sangidwar is a marketer who studied computer science. He loves marketing and keeps up with the changing tech world. Outside of work, he plays Battle Royale games, reads books, and really enjoys food. Sahil brings together his interest in technology and his personal hobbies.
