Quotes from Three Guineas

Virginia Woolf ·  352 pages

Rating: (2.4K votes)


“No guinea of earned money should go to rebuilding the college on the old plan just as certainly none could be spent upon building a college upon a new plan: therefore the guinea should be earmarked "Rags. Petrol. Matches." And this note should be attached to it. "Take this guinea and with it burn the college to the ground. Set fire to the old hypocrisies. Let the light of the burning building scare the nightingales and incarnadine the willows. And let the daughters of educated men dance round the fire and heap armful upon armful of dead leaves upon the flames. And let their mothers lean from the upper windows and cry, "Let it blaze! Let it blaze! For we have done with this 'education!”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“...the value of education is among the greatest of all human values...”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“The questions that we have to ask and to answer about that procession during this moment of transition are so important that they may well change the lives of men and women forever. For we have to ask ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that procession, or don't we? On what terms shall we join that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the procession of educated men?...Let us never cease from thinking--what is this "civilisation" in which we find ourselves? What are these ceremonies and why should we take part in them? What are these professions and why should we make money out of them? Where in short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of educated men?”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“What we have to do now, then, Sir, is to lay your request before the daughters of educated men and to ask them to help you to prevent war, not by advising their brothers how they shall protect culture and intellectual liberty, but simply by reading and writing their own tongue in such a way as to protect those rather abstract goddesses themselves.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas



“quels soucis de gloire, quel intérêt, quelles satisfactions, et elles sont nombreuses, la lutte lui apporte?
Sans la guerre il n y aurait pas de débouchés pour les nombreuses qualités viriles développées par la lutte; se battre ainsi demeure une caractéristique du sexe masculin [...] c est, disent certains la contrepartie de l instinct maternel, qu il ne peuvent, eux, partager”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“en tant que femme je n ai pas de pays.
En tant que femme je ne désire aucun pays.
Mon pays a moi, femme, c est le monde entier.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“Feminism', we have had to destroy.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“Tal como consta por experiencia, y hay muchos hechos que lo demuestran, las hijas de los hombres con educación siempre han ejercido el pensamiento sobre la marcha; no bajo verdes lámparas en mesas de estudio, no en claustros de aisladas universidades. Han pensado mientras vigilaban el puchero, mientras mecían la cuna. Así conquistaron para nosotras el derecho a nuestra flamante moneda de seis peniques. A nosotras nos corresponde seguir pensando. ¿Cómo vamos a gastar los seis peniques? Debemos pensar”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


“Take this guinea then and use it, not to burn the house down, but to make its windows blaze. And let the daughters of uneducated women dance round the new house, the poor house, the house that stands in a narrow street where omnibuses pass and the street hawkers cry their wares, and let them sing, ‘We have done with war! We have done with tyranny!’ And their mothers will laugh from their graves, ‘It was for this that we suffered obloquy and contempt! Light up the windows of the new house, daughters! Let them blaze!”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas



“For,” the outsider will say, “in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from Three Guineas


About the author

Virginia Woolf
Born place: in Kensington, Middlesex, England, The United Kingdom
Born date January 25, 1882
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“When I walked back out of the bathroom, Blake was lying in the bed, propped up against the headboard, his upper body bare. I wondered how many women wanted this. How many fantasized about his body against theirs and downtime before or after. I wanted to laugh at how seriously mistaken they all were about this Adonis. No. Not Adonis . . . not anymore. He was the damn devil. Lucifer had been a beautiful angel. And that’s exactly what Blake was. He was beautiful, but something had happened to him and he was now nothing but pure evil. Forcing”
― Molly McAdams, quote from Forgiving Lies


“Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater." Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer.”
― Nikki Sex, quote from Bound and Freed Boxed Set


“An assassin with serial killer tendencies.”
― Francette Phal, quote from Flawed


“Fire and light. With all our safety measures, and all our weapons, it's the primitive things that keep us safe.”
― Josin L. McQuein, quote from Arclight


“I am organized and in control, today especially!” When you hear yourself say something like “I’ve really got a problem with this...” turn it around and say “I can handle this! I’m a capable person and I handle problems well.” “I just can’t seem to lose weight” becomes “Losing weight is not a problem for me. I eat exactly what I should and only the right healthy amount—I’m losing weight and looking great!” Instead of telling yourself that you’re tired—at a time of the day when you can’t afford to be tired—immediately tell yourself that you have plenty of energy and enthusiasm. And if it doesn’t suddenly make you jump up and down with energy, that’s okay; you’re working on a whole new way to talk to yourself, and you are starting to give your subconscious mind a new set of directions.”
― quote from What to Say When You Talk to Yourself


Interesting books

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
(91.9K)
My Horizontal Life:...
by Chelsea Handler
Marcelo in the Real World
(16.5K)
Marcelo in the Real...
by Francisco X. Stork
As You Wish
(6.8K)
As You Wish
by Jackson Pearce
Dragon Wing
(23K)
Dragon Wing
by Margaret Weis
This Dark Endeavor
(10.3K)
This Dark Endeavor
by Kenneth Oppel
Proxy
(8.7K)
Proxy
by Alex London

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.