"The best thing to do is to loosen my grip on my pen and let it go wandering about until it finds an entrance. There must be one – everything depends on the circumstances, a rule applicable as much to literary style as to life. Each word tugs another one along, one idea another, and that is how books, governments and revolutions are made – some even say that is how Nature created her species."
About Machado de Assis
Machado de Assis — Life and Legacy
Machado de Assis, a pivotal figure in Brazilian literature, is celebrated for his intricate narratives and profound psychological insights. His work often delves into themes of identity and societal critique, reflecting his own experiences as a mixed-race individual in a racially stratified society. In 'Dom Casmurro', he explores the complexities of jealousy and perception, famously stating that 'to be a man is to be a contradiction', which encapsulates his view on the multifaceted nature of human existence. Through such reflections, Assis challenges the norms of his time, revealing the underlying tensions in relationships and social structures. His ability to weave personal struggle with broader societal issues makes his quotes resonate with readers today, as they continue to provoke thought about identity and the human condition.
Quote collection
Machado de Assis quotes (page 1 of 2)
21 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"He felt that there is a loose balance of good and evil, and that the art of living consists in getting the greatest good out of the greatest evil."
"A life without fighting is a dead sea in the universal organism."
"Do not feel badly if your kindness is rewarded with ingratitude; it is better to fall from your dream clouds than from a third-story window."
"I considered the case and realized that if something can exist in opinion without existing in reality, or exist in reality without existing in opinion, the conclusion is that of the two parallel lives, only opinion is necessary – not reality, which is only a secondary consideration."
"There is nothing worse than giving the longest of legs to the smallest of ideas."
"We kill time; time buries us."
"In ordinary life, the action of a third party does not free the contractor from an obligation; but the advantage of making a contract with heaven is that intentions are valid currency."
"There is nothing in the world so monstrously vast as our indifference."
"To him the stars seemed like so many musical notes affixed to the sky, just waiting for somebody to unfasten them. Someday the sky would be emptied, but by then the earth would be a constellation of musical scores"
"It's the occasion that makes the revolution."
"Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next."
"Tomorrow's sun is on it's way - a relentless sun, inscrutable like life."
"Let Pascal say that man is a thinking reed. He is wrong; man is a thinking erratum. Each period in life is a new edition that corrects the preceding one and that in turn will be corrected by the next, until publication of the definitive edition, which the publisher donates to the worms."
"Dreams disdain fine lines and finishing touches on landscapes – they content themselves with thick but representative brushstrokes."
"Tears are not arguments."
"A vida sem luta é um mar morto no centro do organismo universal."
"The conclusion, therefore, is that there are two major forces in society: love, which multiplies the species, and the nose, which subordinates it to the individual. Procreation, equilibrium."
"Some actions are even baser than the people who commit them."
"In woman sex corrects banality, in men it aggravates it."