"Ignorance of the law of irreducibility was no excuse. I could no longer excuse myself with the claim that I didn't know the law -- for knowledge of self and of the world is the law that, even though unattainable, cannot be broken, and no one can excuse himself by saying that he doesn't know it. . . . The renewed originality of the sin is this: I have to carry out my unknowing, I shall be sinning originally against life."

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Source: Clarice Lispector, Johnny Lorenz, Benjamin Moser (2012). “A Breath of Life”, p.19, New Directions Publishing

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Clarice Lispector

Novelist, Short Story Writer

Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian writer known for her introspective novels and short stories that explore themes of identity, love, and existence.

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Clarice Lispector Novelist, Short Story Writer

"Putting my hand in someone else’s has always been my definition of happiness. Before I fall asleep, often - in that small struggle not to lose consciousness and go into the greater world - often, before I get up the courage to go into the vastness of sleep, I pretend that someone has my hand in theirs, and then I go, go to that enormous absence of form that is sleep. And when even after that I don’t have courage, I dream."

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