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32 quotes
Portuguese novelist (1922–2010)
“Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is.”
"The instant is gone, time has carried us into the realm of memory, it was like this, no, it was not, and everything becomes what we choose to invent."
on Time
"... we are only ever pretending to ourselves, never to other people ..."
on Self Awareness
"Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are."
on Identity
"Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered."
on Philosophy
"A human being is a being who is constantly 'under construction,' but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction."
"Truth and falsehood pass through the same lips and leave no mark, the devil does not cease to be the devil just because he may have spoken the truth."
on Truth
"doubt is the privilege of those who have lived a long time,"
on Wisdom
"..there are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything."
"... that destiny has to make many turnings before arriving anywhere, destiny alone knows what it has cost ..."
"... the best way of killing a rose is to force it open when it is still only the promise of a bud."
on Life
"It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power."
on Economy
"Death is present every day in our lives. It's not that I take pleasure in the morbid fascination of it, but it is a fact of life."
on Death
"Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat."
"Assim é, mas a vantagem da igreja é que, embora às vezes o não pareça, ao gerir o que está no alto, governa o que está em baixo."
on Power
"Liking is probably the best form of ownership, and ownership the worst form of liking."
"Everyone wants to save Man, but no one wants to know about men."
on Empathy
"Dignity has no price, when someone starts making small concessions, in the end, life loses all meaning."
"If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?"
"how often fears come to sour our life and prove, in the end, to have no foundation, no reason to exist"
on Fear
"Even death, faced with the option of death or life, she would choose life."
