Fact check: Quote attributed to Virginia Woolf was in a movie, not her primary work
The claim: Virginia Woolf said ‘You cannot find peace by avoiding life’
The quote “You cannot find peace by avoiding life” attributed to English author Virginia Woolf can be found in inspirational social media posts, home décor and even an Oscar-nominated film.
But, outside of one fictionalized account, USA TODAY could find no record of Woolf saying or writing those words. Experts on Woolf’s life and work also didn’t have a primary reference for the quote.
The quote was shared May 1 in a Facebook group called “English literature and Linguistics,” which has more than 137,000 members. It was shared more than 300 times as of May 4.
While commenters debated whether the quote was about Woolf, who died by suicide in 1941, none questioned whether the author known for her stream-of-consciousness style of writing said it in the first place.
The user who shared the post did not respond to a request for comment.
Where did the quote originate?
Woolf is known for her novels, such as “Mrs. Dalloway” and “To The Lighthouse,” but “she was also a prolific writer of essays, diaries, letters and biographies,” according to the British Library.
Searches for the quote “you cannot find peace by avoiding life” associated with her works, though, returned no results. Woolf’s work has a few references to “finding peace,” but none come close to the quote, said Paula Maggio, who runs the website Blogging Woolf.
Maggio searched a copy of Major Authors on CD-ROM: Virginia Woolf, which contains “nearly all of (her) published work,” according to a 1998 review of the program in the journal MFS Modern Fiction Studies.
Maggio’s search found no results for the quote.
The quote appears to have originated in the Oscar-nominated 2002 film “The Hours,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, said Ben Hagen, an assistant professor of English at the University of South Dakota and president of the International Virginia Woolf Society
“The parallel scene in the novel is very different from the book,” he said.
One key difference is the quote. Hagen could not find the quote using a digital search of an electronic copy of the novel. A USA TODAY review of the chapters written from Woolf’s point of view also did not show the quote.
The quote appears in the film during a scene at a train station. While Woolf waits for the next train to London to flee her suburban home, her worried husband, Leonard, arrives to find her. As they leave the station together, the fictionalized version of Woolf says the quote.
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life, Leonard,” she says.
Hagen said in an email to USA TODAY he believes the book “conflates two distinct entries from Woolf’s 1923 diary,” but the sentiment in the quote is better linked to a 1925 essay, “Montaigne.”
The quote does not appear in the essay, but Woolf writes “it is always worth while to risk a little illness for the sake of pleasure” in the wide-ranging essay.
Nicole Kidman portrays novelist Virginia Woolf and Stephen Dillane portrays Leonard Woolf in a scene from 'The Hours.' The film was also nominated for best picture in the Academy Award. (Photo: Clive Coote, Paramount Pictures)
Our ruling: False
The claim Virginia Woolf said “you cannot find peace by avoiding life” is FALSE, based on our research. In the 2002 film “The Hours,” based on the novel by the same name, a fictionalized version of Woolf delivers the quote in a scene at a train station. However, experts on Woolf’s work said they could find no proof the English author wrote those words herself. A USA TODAY search also returned no primary sources showing Woolf said or wrote the quote.
Our fact-check sources:
- British Library, accessed May 4, Entry on Virginia Woolf
- Blogging Woolf, accessed May 4, About the Blog
- Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, accessed May 4, Major Authors on CD-ROM: Virginia Woolf
- MFS Modern Fiction Studies, Summer 1998, Major Authors on CD-ROM: Virginia Woolf (review)
- International Virginia Woolf Society, accessed May 4, Who We Are
- University of South Dakota, accessed May 4, Ben Hagen biography
- Britannica.com, accessed May 4, Virginia Woolf biography
- YouTube, accessed May 4, “The Hours” movie clip
- Pulitzer Prizes, accessed May 4, “The Hours”
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