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Mrs Ramsay sat silent. She was glad, Lily thought, to rest in…

Quote byVirginia Woolf · 1882–1941

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: To the Lighthouse (1927), Part III, Ch. 5.

English (original)

Mrs Ramsay sat silent. She was glad, Lily thought, to rest in silence, uncommunicative; to rest in the extreme obscurity of human relationships. Who knows what we are, what we feel? Who knows even at the moment of intimacy, This is knowledge? Aren't things spoilt then, Mrs Ramsay may have asked (it seemed to have happened so often, this silence by her side) by saying them?

— Virginia Woolf

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