Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Virginia Woolf Novelist

  • Gender: Female
  • Citizenship: England
  • Born: Jan 25, 1882
  • Died: Mar 28, 1941

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando, and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own, with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed bipolar disorder, and committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

We can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods. best & war

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

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. age

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

Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works. experience

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

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order. power

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

Some people go to priests others to poetry I to my friends. friendship & poetry

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

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness. beauty

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman. history

Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top. dreams & truth

The connection between dress and war is not far to seek your finest clothes are those you wear as soldiers. war

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame. alone

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

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

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

The telephone, which interrupts the most serious conversations and cuts short the most weighty observations, has a romance of its own. romantic

Nothing induces me to read a novel except when I have to make money by writing about it. I detest them. money

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

You cannot find peace by avoiding life. peace

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

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

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

The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity. truth & women

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

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

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

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves. freedom