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 word-coining genius, as if thought plunged into a sea of words and came up dripping.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the creative process of forming new words and ideas as an immersive, almost overwhelming experience.
Virginia Woolf describes the act of creating new words as akin to diving into a vast ocean of language, where the mind is fully immersed and surfaces with fresh ideas. This poetic imagery suggests that the process of coining words is both rich and profound, reflecting the creativity involved in literature and art, where every word matters and carries deep significance.
Themes
LanguageCreativityWordsArtExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the beauty of language during a literature class.
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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