Adeline Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, in Kensington, London, United Kingdom. She was a central figure in 20th-century literature. She was a pioneering English modernist author who revolutionized the novel form through Stream of Consciousness, producing masterpieces such as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. She significantly impacted feminist literature with A Room of One's Own, co-founded the Hogarth Press, and was a key member of the influential Bloomsbury Group. May these Virginia Woolf quotes and sayings offer you insights into the reality of life.
1. “If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.” – Virginia Woolf
2. “Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.” – Virginia Woolf
3. “I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.” – Virginia Woolf
4. “The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.” – Virginia Woolf
5. “It might be possible that the world itself is without meaning.” – Virginia Woolf
6. “The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.” – Virginia Woolf
7. “Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.” – Virginia Woolf
8. “When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?” – Virginia Woolf
9. “When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness, I am nothing.” – Virginia Woolf
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10. “They can because they think they can.” – Virginia Woolf
11. “Once she knows how to read there's only one thing you can teach her to believe in and that is herself.” – Virginia Woolf
12. “As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.” – Virginia Woolf
13. “I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.” – Virginia Woolf
14. “I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.” – Virginia Woolf
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15. “No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” – Virginia Woolf
16. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf
17. “Arrange whatever pieces come your way.” – Virginia Woolf
18. “The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of emancipation itself.” – Virginia Woolf
19. “Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.” – Virginia Woolf
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20. “To love makes one solitary.” – Virginia Woolf
21. “All extremes of feeling are allied with madness.” – Virginia Woolf
22. “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.” – Virginia Woolf
23. “It is a thousand pities never to say what one feels.” – Virginia Woolf
24. “Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.” – Virginia Woolf
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25. “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” – Virginia Woolf
26. “It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes makes its way to the surface.” – Virginia Woolf
27. “What does the brain matter compared with the heart?” – Virginia Woolf
28. “To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.” – Virginia Woolf
29. “It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.” – Virginia Woolf
30. “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.” – Virginia Woolf
More Virginia Woolf Quotes and Phrases on Life
31. “I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” – Virginia Woolf
32. “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.” – Virginia Woolf
33. “Friendships, even the best of them, are frail things. One drifts apart.” – Virginia Woolf
34. “He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life.” – Virginia Woolf
35. “I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married.” – Virginia Woolf
36. “Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty, it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life, froze it.” – Virginia Woolf
37. “It was a silly, silly dream, being unhappy.” – Virginia Woolf
38. “To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.” – Virginia Woolf
39. “The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.” – Virginia Woolf
40. “Nothing has really happened until it has been described.” – Virginia Woolf
41. “Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.” – Virginia Woolf
42. “Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.” – Virginia Woolf
43. “Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.” – Virginia Woolf
44. “At one and the same time, therefore, society is everything and society is nothing. Society is the most powerful concoction in the world and society has no existence whatsoever.” – Virginia Woolf
45. “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” – Virginia Woolf
46. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” – Virginia Woolf
47. “For it would seem—her case proved it—that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person.” – Virginia Woolf
48. “I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun.” – Virginia Woolf
49. “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” – Virginia Woolf
50. “I am not one and simple, but complex and many.” – Virginia Woolf
51. “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
52. “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.” – Virginia Woolf
53. “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
54. “As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf
55. “Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.” – Virginia Woolf
56. “Thinking is my fighting.” – Virginia Woolf
57. “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly.” – Virginia Woolf
58. “Let us never cease from thinking—what is this civilization in which we find ourselves? What are these ceremonies and why should we take part in them? What are these professions and why should we make money out of them?” – Virginia Woolf
59. “The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.” – Virginia Woolf
60. “There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.” – Virginia Woolf
61. “Each had his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart; and his friends could only read the title.” – Virginia Woolf
62. “I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.” – Virginia Woolf
Share these Famous Quotes by Virginia Woolf with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.
2. “Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.” – Virginia Woolf
3. “I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.” – Virginia Woolf
4. “The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.” – Virginia Woolf
5. “It might be possible that the world itself is without meaning.” – Virginia Woolf
6. “The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.” – Virginia Woolf
7. “Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.” – Virginia Woolf
8. “When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?” – Virginia Woolf
9. “When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness, I am nothing.” – Virginia Woolf
11. “Once she knows how to read there's only one thing you can teach her to believe in and that is herself.” – Virginia Woolf
12. “As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.” – Virginia Woolf
13. “I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.” – Virginia Woolf
14. “I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.” – Virginia Woolf
16. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf
17. “Arrange whatever pieces come your way.” – Virginia Woolf
18. “The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of emancipation itself.” – Virginia Woolf
19. “Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.” – Virginia Woolf
21. “All extremes of feeling are allied with madness.” – Virginia Woolf
22. “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.” – Virginia Woolf
23. “It is a thousand pities never to say what one feels.” – Virginia Woolf
24. “Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.” – Virginia Woolf
26. “It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes makes its way to the surface.” – Virginia Woolf
27. “What does the brain matter compared with the heart?” – Virginia Woolf
28. “To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.” – Virginia Woolf
29. “It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.” – Virginia Woolf
30. “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.” – Virginia Woolf
More Virginia Woolf Quotes and Phrases on Life
31. “I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” – Virginia Woolf
32. “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.” – Virginia Woolf
33. “Friendships, even the best of them, are frail things. One drifts apart.” – Virginia Woolf
34. “He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life.” – Virginia Woolf
35. “I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married.” – Virginia Woolf
36. “Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty, it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life, froze it.” – Virginia Woolf
37. “It was a silly, silly dream, being unhappy.” – Virginia Woolf
38. “To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.” – Virginia Woolf
39. “The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.” – Virginia Woolf
40. “Nothing has really happened until it has been described.” – Virginia Woolf
41. “Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.” – Virginia Woolf
42. “Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.” – Virginia Woolf
43. “Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.” – Virginia Woolf
44. “At one and the same time, therefore, society is everything and society is nothing. Society is the most powerful concoction in the world and society has no existence whatsoever.” – Virginia Woolf
45. “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” – Virginia Woolf
46. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” – Virginia Woolf
47. “For it would seem—her case proved it—that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person.” – Virginia Woolf
48. “I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun.” – Virginia Woolf
49. “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” – Virginia Woolf
50. “I am not one and simple, but complex and many.” – Virginia Woolf
51. “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
52. “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.” – Virginia Woolf
53. “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
54. “As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf
55. “Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.” – Virginia Woolf
56. “Thinking is my fighting.” – Virginia Woolf
57. “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly.” – Virginia Woolf
58. “Let us never cease from thinking—what is this civilization in which we find ourselves? What are these ceremonies and why should we take part in them? What are these professions and why should we make money out of them?” – Virginia Woolf
59. “The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.” – Virginia Woolf
60. “There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.” – Virginia Woolf
61. “Each had his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart; and his friends could only read the title.” – Virginia Woolf
62. “I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.” – Virginia Woolf
Share these Famous Quotes by Virginia Woolf with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.