Virginia Woolf Quotes

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry.

Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful.

Well, where there is freedom doubt itself must be free.

I've always liked being relatively obscure. I feel that's where I belong, that's where my work belongs.

It is very nearly impossible... to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

A couple years ago, the novelist Russell Banks told me he was reading the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. I asked why. He said, 'Because I've always wanted to and am tired of having my reading assigned.' I thought it was a marvelous declaration of independence.

The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.

There will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of immaturity themselves, will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable estimate of their own value and of the need for every man to think for himself.

All that is required for this enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely, the freedom for man to make public use of his reason in all matters. But I hear people clamor on all sides: Don't argue! The officer says: Don't argue, drill! The tax collector: Don't argue, pay! The pastor: Don't argue, believe! The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among men...

All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of thought and expression. That is all. I do not pretend to tell what is absolutely true, but what I think is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth..

Our forefathers found the evils of free thinking more to be endured than the evils of inquest or suppression. This is because thoughtful, bold and independent minds are essential to the wise and considered self-government.

Men must also be allowed the publication of their opinions, if this be done with decency and seriousness, for the learned can have no right to say that they are in possession of the truth, still less can the unlearned, unless every grave man can offer his opinions, be they what they may…

My father has never once asked me a question, any question. There's a freedom that came from that. It allowed me to create my own way of thinking.

People forgot about us, which was what we wanted. We could be left alone without any pressure to make music.

Dissent is the mark of freedom, as originality is the mark of independence of mind. … No one can be a scientist … if he does not have independence of observation and of thought.

Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts and strives without fear to do justice to them.

Ignoring the source of creation and trying to conduct your life yourself is a terribly egoistic and ignorant attitude towards life.

When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. And now see what has become of me.

Truth certainly would do well enough, if she were once left to shift for herself...She is not taught by laws, nor has she any need of force, to procure her entrance into the minds of men.

I don't mean to say that I'm about to state my credo here on this page, but merely to affirm, sincerely for the first time in my life, my belief in man as an individual and independent entity. Certainly not independence in the everyday sense of the word, but pertaining to a freedom and mobility of thought that few people are able - or even have the courage - to achieve.

Every mind deserves to be free.

Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.

The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial. It is the institution of private property that protects and implements the right to disagree - and thus keeps the road open to man's most valuable attribute: the creative mind.