Virginia Woolf was an English author born in 1882. She was one of the first writers to use the narrative technique known as stream of consciousness. Woolf is quoted often in today's world. One of her quotes is the one mentioned above:
"... the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only the past."
Many authors, such as Tara Westover, use this quote in their own work. It is likely that Woolf was attempting to express the concept that "hindsight is 20/20" or something similar to this. This means that the past can only be appreciated because with the past comes memories that hold emotions.
