Virginia Woolf Quotes

The fact is that purification and austerity are even more necessary for the appreciation of life and laughter than for anything else. To let no bird fly past unnoticed, to spell the stones and weeds, to have the mind a storehouse of sunset, requires a discipline in pleasure and an education in gratitude.

There is only one world; the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive; this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

The secret to happiness, at Thanksgiving or any time, is to find pleasure in imperfection.

I am grateful for what I call well-spent moments: Making a tuna fish sandwich with the works. Taking at least a half hour to eat it outside. Ironing my vintage tea towels while watching old black-and-white film noir movies and sipping one martini with extra olives - a quirky combination, but it works.

I like taking my time and seeing the things around me and appreciating the now.

Life can change in an instant; don't be so worried about the future that you forget to celebrate what you have right now.

Life is not only meant to be appreciated in retrospect ... There is something each day to embrace and cherish.

Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.

I really enjoy what I'm doing. I think you have to have a good time and not look too far back or too far ahead.

The only way to survive eternity is to be able to appreciate each moment.

In our hedonistic age, the Slow movement has a marketing ace up its sleeve: it peddles pleasure. The central tenet of the Slow philosophy is taking the time to do things properly, and thereby enjoy them more.

She sits in her usual ample armchair, with piles of books and unopened magazines around her. She sips cautiously from the mug of weak herb tea which is now her substitute for coffee. At one time she thought that she could not live without coffee, but it turned out that it is really the warm large mug she wants in her hands, that is the aid to thought or whatever it is she practices through the procession of hours, or of days.

All there is to do, right at this very moment, is to breathe in, breathe out, and kiss the joy as it flies.

There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it!

In this moment, you have everything you need, and life is just a series of moments.

I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late-there's that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantimePoetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.

I pray before everything. When I wake up, before I eat, before I perform, before I go to sleep, in the moments I need guidance.

The pleasure and value of every walk or journey we take may be doubled to us by carefully noting down the impressions it makes upon us.

Every day after lunch when I was writing my first book, I'd nibble a square of fine chocolate and meditate on all that had gone into its creation: the sun and rain that spilled on the cocoa plant, the soil that nourished it, the hands that picked the beans, and so on. My taste of chocolate became a lesson on the interconnectedness of things, and the infinite blessings for which I am grateful.

If I say to the moment: 'Stay now! You are so beautiful'!

This moment is your life. It is the process of living, the journey, that is life itself, and we often wish away our lives by focusing only on what tomorrow could, should, would bring.

although I love a rich life, I hate an overcrowded life. I believe in rumination and lose half the beauty of all things when I am deprived of the time to ruminate.

The art of life is to live in the present moment