“A desire for children, I suppose; for Nessa's life; for the sense of flowers breaking all round me involuntarily. […] Years and years ago, after the Lytton affair, I said to myself, walking up the hill at Bayreuth, never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having; good advice I think. And then I went on to say to myself that one must like things for themselves; or rather, rid them of their bearing upon one's personal life. One must venture on to the things that exist independently of oneself. Now this is very hard for young women to do. Yet I got satisfaction from it. And now, married to L., I never have to make the effort. Perhaps I have been to happy for my soul's good? And does some of my discontent come from feeling that?”
2 January 1923
A Moment's Liberty (1990)
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Virginia Woolf 382
English writer 1882–1941Related quotes

“Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.”
Source: The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Two: 1920-1924

I know what I have to do.
As quoted in Denise Worrell (1989), Icons: Intimate Portraits.

Gramsci cited in Davidson, 1977, p. 70.

Just Once in My Life (1965), co-written with Gerry Goffin and Phil Spector, first recorded by The Righteous Brothers
Song lyrics, Singles

Letter to Thomas Jefferson (15 July 1817)
1810s