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
Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Collective actions of large groups often dilute individual accountability.
Virginia Woolf's quote suggests that when large groups of people come together, such as crowds or societies, the sense of personal responsibility tends to diminish. This notion highlights how collective actions can sometimes lead to outcomes that individuals within the group might not endorse if acting alone, thus raising questions about moral responsibility and ethical behavior in societal contexts.
Themes
ResponsibilityCrowdCollectiveAccountabilitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about social media's influence on behavior, one might quote Woolf to illustrate how mob mentality can influence individuals.
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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Sing the songs of joy to the Lord, serve the Name of the Lord, and become the servant of His servants.
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Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, She lives whom we call dead.
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A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter.
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