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“He always finds himself face to face with the incomprehensible, inaccessible, the "language of the stone". And his only recourse is talking. This cannot be "literature". Literature belongs to those who are at home in the world. He can only talk in a simple--deceptively simple--way: circular, repetitive, insisting on the very gap between him and the world, between him and nature. He can only hope that out of his insistence will come a new language which can fill the gap and include the other side.”
― Collected Prose
― Collected Prose
“There's a proverb, a maxim, that runs, 'The dead man is dead; let's give a hand to the living.' Now, you say that to a man from the North, and he visualizes the scene of an accident with one dead and one injured man; it's reasonable to let the dead man be and to set about saving the injured man. But a Sicilian visualizes a murdered man and his murderer, and the living man who's to be helped is the murderer.”
― To Each His Own
― To Each His Own
“The only thing in this world is music–music and books and one or two pictures. I am going to found a colony where there shall be no marrying–unless you happen to fall in love with a symphony of Beethoven–no human element at all, except what comes through Art–nothing but ideal peace and endless meditation. The whole of human beings grows too complicated, my only wonder is that we don’t fill more madhouses: the insane view of life has much to be said for it–perhaps its the sane one after all: and we, the sad sober respectable citizens really rave every moment of our lives and deserve to be shut up perpetually. My spring melancholy is developing these hot days into summer madness.”
― The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol. One, 1888-1912
― The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol. One, 1888-1912
“There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy.”
― Love's Work: A Reckoning with Life
― Love's Work: A Reckoning with Life
Book Worms
— 40 members
— last activity Mar 10, 2020 05:05PM
For friends who like to chat about books.
European Royalty
— 1561 members
— last activity Dec 02, 2025 09:03AM
This is a group for anyone who enjoys fiction and non-fiction books about European royalty and history in general. We have a wide variety of discussio ...more
International Reads
— 592 members
— last activity Aug 31, 2019 08:44PM
This book club's focus is on reading as diversely as possible. We hope to read books we may not otherwise have read or even heard of! This book club ...more
Jessica’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jessica’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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