“A light here required a shadow there.”

Part I, Ch. 9
To the Lighthouse (1927)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A light here required a shadow there." by Virginia Woolf?
Virginia Woolf photo
Virginia Woolf 382
English writer 1882–1941

Related quotes

Hans Frank photo

“Even in art, there is no light without shadows, and no shadows are cast without some light. Even the shadow of Adolf Hitler is accompanied by some light.”

Hans Frank (1900–1946) German war criminal

To Leon Goldensohn, July 20, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 37

Algernon Charles Swinburne photo

“Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

Second chorus, lines 1-12.
Atalanta in Calydon (1865)
Context: Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time with a gift of tears,
Grief with a glass that ran,
Pleasure with pain for leaven,
Summer with flowers that fell,
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And Madness risen from hell,
Strength without hands to smite,
Love that endures for a breath;
Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“The outlines and form of any part of a body in light and shade are indistinct in the shadows and in the high lights; but in the portions between the light and the shadows they are highly conspicuous.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), III Six books on Light and Shade

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), III Six books on Light and Shade

Margaret Atwood photo
John Updike photo

“We live down here among shadows, shadows among shadows.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Act I
Buchanan Dying (1974)
Context: Facts are generally overesteemed. For most practical purposes, a thing is what men think it is. When they judged the earth flat, it was flat. As long as men thought slavery tolerable, tolerable it was. We live down here among shadows, shadows among shadows.

Robert Penn Warren photo

“Here is the shadow of truth, for only the shadow is true.”

Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) American poet, novelist, and literary critic

"A Way to Love God", New and Selected Poems 1923–1985 (1985)

Glen Cook photo

“The light overcame the shadow. But as always, the shadow left its taint on the victors.”

Source: The White Rose (1985), Chapter 43, “Picnic” (p. 645)

Related topics