"With the passage of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the color of our blood and the salt of our tears."
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Quote collection
Jose Saramago quotes (page 10 of 11)
209 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist."
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"Some drivers have already got out of their cars, prepared to push the stranded vehicle to a spot where it will not hold up the traffic, they beat furiously on the closed windows, the man inside turns his head in their direction, first to one side then to the other, he is clearly shouting something, to judge by the movements of his mouth he appears to be repeating some words, no one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind."
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"The virtue of maps, they show what can be done with limited space, they foresee that everything can happen therein."
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"We are so afraid of the idea of having to die... that we always try to find excuses for the dead, as if we were asking beforehand to be excused when it is our turn."
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"anyone who gets up early by inclination or has been forced to rise early out of necessity finds it intolerable that others should go on sleeping soundly"
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"Society has to change, but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought."
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"The distribution of tasks among the various employees follows a simple rule, which is that the duty of the members of each category is to do as much work as they possibly can, so that only a small part of that work need be passed to the category above. This means that the clerks are obliged to work without cease from morning to night, whereas the senior clerks do so only now and then, the deputies very rarely, and the Registrar almost never."
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"There are plenty of reasons not to put up with the world as it is, and if the book has any kind of message, I suppose that's it."
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"I was a good pupil at primary school: in the second class I was writing with no spelling mistakes, and the third and fourth classes were done in a single year."
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"There is nothing that is truly free nor democratic enough. Make no mistake, the internet did not come to save the world."
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"Ah, in every age there is always some new wonder to astound mankind until they grow accustomed to it and lose interest."
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"The time for miracles has either passed or not come yet, besides, miracles, genuine miracles, whatever people say, are not such a good idea, if it means destroying the very order of things in order to improve them."
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"The painter paints, the musician makes music, the novelist writes novels. But I believe that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens."
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"Though I had come into the world on 16 November 1922, my official documents show that I was born two days later, on the 18th. It was thanks to this petty fraud that my family escaped from paying the fine for not having registered my birth at the proper legal time."
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"The beginning is never the clear, precise end of a thread, the beginning is a long, painfully slow process that requires time and patience in order to find out in which direction it is heading, a process that feels its way along the path ahead like a blind man the beginning is just the beginning, what came before is nigh on worthless."
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"We are marching against the law of the jungle that the United States and its acolytes old and new want to impose on the world."
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"Perfect moments, especially when they verge on the sublime have the grave disadvantage of being very short lived, which in fact, being obvious, we would not need to mention were it not that they have a still greater disadvantage, which is that we do not know what to do once they are over."
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"Because each of you has his or her own death, you carry it with you in a secret place from the moment you're born, it belongs to you and you belong to it."
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"With the passing of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the colour of blood and in the salt of tears, and, as if that were not enough, we made our eyes into a kind of mirror turned inwards, with the result that they often show without reserve what we are verbally trying to deny."
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