Past time Quote by Virginia Woolf
““What is meant by “reality”? It would seem to be something very erratic, very undependable—now to be found in a dusty road, now in a scrap of newspaper in the street, now a daffodil in the sun. It lights up a group in a room and stamps some casual saying. It overwhelms one walking home beneath the stars and makes the silent world more real than the world of speech—and then there it is again in an omnibus in the uproar of Piccadilly. Sometimes, too, it seems to dwell in shapes too far away for us to discern what their nature is. But whatever it touches, it fixes and makes permanent. That is what remains over when the skin of the day has been cast into the hedge; that is what is left of past time and of our loves and hates.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1925
Reality is portrayed as fleeting, found in ordinary moments, yet those moments become lasting impressions that shape memory and emotion.
In simple terms: Reality is fleeting but leaves lasting impressions.
Key Takeaway
Notice and cherish everyday moments.
Themes
memory
perception
impermanence
emotion
time
Mood
reflective
melancholic
contemplative
Type
literary
philosophical
poetic
When to use this quote
- walking home
- reading a newspaper
- seeing a flower
- city travel
- personal reflection
Key Concepts
existentialism
subjectivity
phenomenology
Questions to Reflect On
- How do everyday details shape your sense of reality?
- What moments become permanent in your memory?
A Different Perspective
Reality’s fluidity can make it hard to distinguish between perception and objective truth.
