QuoteProject
To sit and contemplate - to remember the faces of women without desire, to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy, to be everything and everywhere in sympathy and yet content to remain where and what you are.
Virginia Woolf
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of reflection, empathy, and contentment in one's existence.

Virginia Woolf's quote invites us to engage in thoughtful contemplation, highlighting the value of appreciating the achievements of others without jealousy and cherishing connections with people without desire. It suggests that one can be empathetic and supportive while still embracing their own identity and place in the world, promoting a sense of inner peace and balance.

Themes

ContemplationEmpathyContentmentReflectionIdentity

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about mental health, one might use this quote to emphasize the significance of self-awareness and acceptance.

More from Virginia Woolf

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
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

Similar quotes

Whether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.
Jodi PicoultRead
Veganism is the application of the principle of abolition in your own life; it represents your recognition that animals are not things. Veganism is the recognition of the moral personhood of nonhuman animals.
Gary L. FrancioneRead
Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.
Rene DubosRead
Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may.
Daniel WebsterRead
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Thomas NagelRead
Grassroots groups challenge the "business-as-usual" environmentalism that is generally practiced by the more privileged wildlife-and conservation-oriented groups. The focus of activists of color and their constituents reflects their life experiences of social, economic, and political disenfranchisement.
Robert D BullardRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.