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
When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness—I am nothing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The absence of language and expression leads to a feeling of emptiness and disconnection.
Virginia Woolf expresses a profound connection between language and identity in this quote. The imagery of words curling like smoke signifies the beauty and fluidity of thoughts, and without them, she feels lost and devoid of purpose, emphasizing the essential role of expression in shaping one's existence and understanding of the world.
Themes
LanguageIdentityExpressionDarknessExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of language in personal identity.
More from Virginia Woolf
All quotes →Death is woven in with the violets,” said Louis. “Death and again death.”)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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