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
Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter's evening, when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The beauty of voices is most profound during quiet winter evenings, creating a unique sense of intimacy.
Virginia Woolf reflects on the exceptional quality of sound during winter evenings, suggesting that the atmosphere at dusk enhances the beauty of voices. The fleeting nature of this experience, heightened by the darkness, evokes a rare intimacy that is often lost in the busyness of daytime, inviting us to appreciate the subtleties of our surroundings and connections during quieter moments.
Themes
BeautyVoicesWinterEveningIntimacySilence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of finding peace and beauty in quiet moments.
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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