“Would there be trees if we didn't see them?”

—  Virginia Woolf , book The Years

Source: The Years

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Would there be trees if we didn't see them?" by Virginia Woolf?
Virginia Woolf photo
Virginia Woolf 382
English writer 1882–1941

Related quotes

Gerhard Richter photo

“When we describe a process, or make out an invoice, or photograph a tree, we create models; without them we would know nothing of reality and would be animals. Abstract pictures are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can postulate.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

in text for catalogue of documenta 7, Kassel, 1982; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Abstract paintings' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/subjects-2/abstract-paintings-7
1980's

“The natural born reason we didn't git no yew-ranium when we crosses the li'l yew tree and the gee-ranium is on account of cause we didn't have no geiger counter.”

Walt Kelly (1913–1973) American cartoonist

Dr. Howland Owl
Pogo comic strip (1948 - 1975), Others

Joni Mitchell photo

“They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em.”

Joni Mitchell (1943) Canadian musician

"Big Yellow Taxi"
Songs

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”

Jack Handey (1949) American comedian

Deep Thoughts: Inspiration for the Uninspired (1992), Berkley Books, ISBN 0-425-13365-6

Lori Foster photo

“Trace cursed. He actually wanted to hit something, but a tree would break his knuckles, he didn't want to put another dent in the truck, and Dare would hit back.”

Lori Foster (1958) American writer

Source: Trace of Fever

Robert M. Sapolsky photo

“This is not seeing the trees instead of the forest, this is seeing the bark on the trees, this very concreteness.”

Robert M. Sapolsky (1957) American endocrinologist

Emperor Has No Clothes Award acceptance speech (2003)
Context: Schizophrenics have a whole lot of trouble telling the level of abstraction of a story. They're always biased in the direction of interpreting things more concretely than is actually the case. You would take a schizopohrenic and say, "Okay, what do apples, bananas and oranges have in common?" and they would say, "They all are multi-syllabic words."
You say "Well, that's true. Do they have anything else in common?" and they say, "Yes, they actually all contain letters that form closed loops."
This is not seeing the trees instead of the forest, this is seeing the bark on the trees, this very concreteness.

Egon Schiele photo

“I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds.”

Egon Schiele (1890–1918) austrian painter
Rumi photo

“Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)

“But that was a realworld, and he didn't have to put it down on paper. He ripped the page out of the book, tore it into shreds, and threw them behind the tree, where they settled into the weeds.”

Patricia Reilly Giff (1935) American children's writer

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 15

Related topics