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“I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“Books are the mirrors of the soul.”
― Between the Acts
― Between the Acts
“Why are women... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?”
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“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”
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“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.”
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“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”
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“As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.”
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“When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?”
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“The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.”
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“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”
― A Room of One's Own / Three Guineas
― A Room of One's Own / Three Guineas
“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.”
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“There was a star riding through clouds one night, & I said to the star, 'Consume me'.”
― The Waves
― The Waves
“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“I am rooted, but I flow.”
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“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”
― To the Lighthouse
― To the Lighthouse
“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.”
― The Waves
― The Waves
“Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”
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“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”
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“A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his pen.”
― Orlando
― Orlando
“Orlando naturally loved solitary places, vast views, and to feel himself for ever and ever and ever alone.”
― Orlando
― Orlando
“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
― A Room of One’s Own
― A Room of One’s Own
“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.”
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