Virginia Woolf (via sleepinginthesnow)

The moon, indeed, measures the most conspicuous periodicities, and it was terms relating to the moon that were first used for the measurement of time. The lunar rhythm regularly presents a “creation” (the new moon), followed by a growth (to full moon), a diminution and a “death” (the three moonless nights). It was probably the image of the eternal birth and death of the moon which helped to crystallise the earliest human intuitions about the alterations of Life
and Death, and suggested, later on, the myth of the periodic creation and destruction of the world