Virginia Woolf · 480 pages
Rating: (2.5K votes)
“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”
“For books continue each other, in spite of our habit of judging them separately.”
“Dünya kadına, erkeklere dediği gibi 'istersen yaz, umurumda değil' demiyordu. Dünya kaba kaba gülerek, 'yazmak mı' diyordu. 'yazman ne işe yarıyor?'
Entelektüel özgürlük maddi şeylere bağlıdır. Şiir de entelektüel özgürlüğe bağlıdır. Kadınlarsa hep yoksul olmuşlardır, sadece iki yüzyıldır değil, dünya kurulalı beri. Kadınlar Atinalı kölelerin çocukları kadar bile entelektüel özgürlüğe sahip olmadılar. O zaman kadınların şiir yazmak için en ufak bir şansları bile yoktu. İşte bu yüzden paranın ve kendine ait bir odanın önemini vurguladım.”
“-çünkü eğer kadın gerçeği söylemeye başlarsa aynadaki görüntü büzülür; erkek hayata uyum sağlayamaz olur.”
“(kadın için) -böylece çok garip ve karışık bir varlık çıkıyor ortaya. Hayal edildiğinde çok önemli, pratikte ise tamamen önemsiz. Şiir kitaplarını baştan sona istila etmiş, tarihte ise adı geçmiyor. Kurmacalarda, kralların ve fatihlerin hayatlarına hükmediyor; gerçek hayatta ailesinin parmağına yüzüğü taktığı herhangi bir delikanlının kölesi. Dudaklarından, edebiyatın en ilham verici sözcükleri, en derin duygularından bazıları dökülüyor, gerçek hayatta okuması yazması neredeyse yok, zor heceliyor sözcükleri ve kocasının malı durumunda.”
“Sheakspeare'in zamanında bir kadının onunki gibi bir yeteneğe sahip olması mümkün değildi. Çünkü Sheakspeare gibi dahiler çalışan, eğitimsiz, alt sınıftan insanların arasından çıkmazlar.
On altıncı yüzyılda büyük bir yetenekle doğan her kadın mutlaka delirirdi, kendini vururdu, ya da köyün dışındaki sessiz bir kulübede geçirirdi hayatının son günlerini, yarı cadı yarı büyücü sanılır, korkulur ve alay edilirdi.”
“When you walk into a room every chick there forgets she is with the guy standing right next to her and wishes she was with you.”
“It's not that I want you to be a certain way--don't you want a boyfriend?"
"Why bother with that? Let's find incubi."
"Incubi?"
"Demons. Plural. Like octopi. And we're much more likely to find them"--her voice dropped conspiratorially--"while swimming naked in the Atlantic a week before Halloween than practically anywhere else I can think of.”
“Good,” said the First Speaker. “And tell me, what do you think of all this. A finished work of art, is it not?”
“Definitely!”
“Wrong! It is not.” This, with sharpness. “It is the first lesson you must unlearn. The Seldon Plan is neither complete nor correct. Instead, it is merely the best that could be done at the time. Over a dozen generations of men have pored over these equations, worked at them, taken them apart to the last decimal place, and put them together again. They’ve done more than that. They’ve watched nearly four hundred years pass and against the predictions and equations, they’ve checked reality, and they have learned.”
“It takes me a while to figure things out, doesn't it?" Edilio grinned. "Do me a favor. When you find Astrid, repeat that to her, word for word, the part about how it takes you a while. Then remember her exact reaction and tell me.”
“But I can't kill anyone,' said Jonathan, 'you know that Orvar!' 'Not even if it means your life?' asked Orvar. 'No, not even then,' said Jonathan. Orvar couldn't understand this and Mattias hardly could, either. 'If everyone were like you,' said Orvar, 'then evil would rule for all eternity!' But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, then there would be no evil.”
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