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
If the best of one's feelings means nothing to the person most concerned in those feelings, what reality is left us?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the importance of mutual emotional investment in relationships.
Virginia Woolf's quote highlights the significance of emotional connections in our relationships. When one's genuine feelings do not resonate or matter to the person they are directed towards, it raises existential questions about the nature of reality and the value of those feelings, suggesting that the essence of our interactions is deeply rooted in mutual recognition and care.
Themes
FeelingsRelationshipsEmotionConnectionMutuality
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on emotional healing, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of being valued in relationships.
More from Virginia Woolf
All quotes βDeath is woven in with the violets,β said Louis. βDeath and again death.β)
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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