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
Am I a weed, carried this way, that way, on a tide that comes twice a day without a meaning?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on existential uncertainty and the search for meaning in life.
In this quote, Virginia Woolf uses the metaphor of a weed to convey feelings of aimlessness and lack of direction. The imagery of being carried by a tide symbolizes the uncontrollable forces of life that can lead one to question their purpose and existence. This introspection raises profound queries about meaning and the struggle to find one's value in a seemingly indifferent world.
Themes
ExistentialismMeaningPurposeIdentityLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the search for personal identity, one might quote Woolf to emphasize the struggle for meaning.
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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