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
Yield to that strange passion which sends you madly whirling round the room.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote encourages embracing intense emotions and creative impulses, even if they seem irrational.
Virginia Woolf's quote speaks to the importance of surrendering to one's passions and emotional experiences, suggesting that these intense feelings can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and the world. The imagery of 'madly whirling round the room' captures the exhilarating and often chaotic nature of creative inspiration, encouraging individuals to not shy away from these moments of emotional upheaval but to rather embrace them as vital components of life and artistry.
Themes
PassionEmotionCreativityArtSelf-Expression
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about creativity, one might say, 'Yield to that strange passion which sends you madly whirling round the room.'
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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