“For it is probable that when people talk aloud, the selves (of which there may be more than two thousand) are conscious of disserverment, and are trying to communicate but when communication is established there is nothing more to be said.”

— Virginia Woolf

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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Virginia Woolf 382

English writer 1882–1941

Adrian Hastings (1929–2001) Roman Catholic priest, historian and author

Source: The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion, and nationalism (1997), p. 3; cited in: Ciarán Benson (2001) The Cultural Psychology of the Self: Place, Morality, Art. p. 211.

“There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Christian Nestell Bovee, in Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 124
Misattributed

“There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.”

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American writer

Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 124.

“The odd thing about this form of communication is you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many… somethings. So, thanks.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

“There are few efforts more conducive to humility than that of the translator trying to communicate an incommunicable beauty.”

Edith Hamilton (1867–1963) American teacher and writer

Three Greek Plays, introduction (1937)
Context: There are few efforts more conducive to humility than that of the translator trying to communicate an incommunicable beauty. Yet, unless we do try, something unique and never surpassed will cease to exist, except in the libraries of a few inquisitive book lovers.