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.
Virginia WoolfRead
The only advice ... that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal judgment in the process of learning and understanding texts.
Virginia Woolf highlights the significance of independent thinking in reading. She argues that rather than relying on the advice of others, individuals should trust their own instincts and reasoning abilities to interpret literature and form their own conclusions. This perspective champions the idea that personal engagement with texts leads to deeper understanding and appreciation.
Themes
ReadingIndependenceLearningWisdomPersonal Growth
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club discussion, one may reference this quote to encourage members to share their personal interpretations without relying solely on the perspectives of critics.
More from Virginia Woolf
All quotes →Death is woven in with the violets,” said Louis. “Death and again death.”)
Virginia WoolfRead
He began to search among the infinite series of impressions which time had laid down, leaf upon leaf, fold upon fold softly, incessantly upon his brain; among scents, sounds; voices, harsh, hollow, sweet; and lights passing, and brooms tapping; and the wash and hush of the sea.
Virginia WoolfRead
I want to think quietly, calmly, spaciously, never to be interrupted, never to have to rise from my chair, to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts.
Virginia WoolfRead
I do think all good and evil comes from words. I have to tune myself into a good temper with something musical, and I run to a book as a child to its mother.
Virginia WoolfRead
London perpetually attracts, stimulates, gives me a play and a story and a poem, without any trouble, save that of moving my legs through the streets... To walk alone through London is the greatest rest.
Virginia WoolfRead
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