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
Let a man get up and say, Behold, this is the truth, and instantly I perceive a sandy cat filching a piece of fish in the background. Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the tendency to overlook distractions when faced with profound truths.
Virginia Woolf's quote suggests that when someone presents a significant truth, people may easily be distracted by trivial matters, symbolized by the 'sandy cat filching a piece of fish'. It underscores the complexities of human attention and how our focus can shift away from important discussions to inconsequential observations, often leading to an avoidance of deeper understanding.
Themes
TruthDistractionObservationAttentionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of focusing on significant issues in society rather than getting lost in trivialities.
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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