“As we pass one step, and as we recognize it as being behind us, the next one already rises up before us. By the time we learn everything, we slowly come to understand it. And while you come to understand everything gradually, you don't remain idle at any moment: you are already attending to your new business; you live, you act, you move, you fulfill the new requirements of every new step of development. If, on the other hand, there were no schedule, no gradual enlightenment, if all the knowledge descended on you at once right there in one spot, then it's possible neither your brains nor your heart could bear it.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“...I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Мога да заявя, че няма по-мъчително, по-разочароващо нещо от това ден след ден да следиш, ден след ден да откриваш какво е унищожено в тебе.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“It was not very likely, of course, but then all kinds of things are possible, after all.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Mais n'exagérons rien, puisque c'est là le problème: je suis ici et je sais bien que j'accepte tous les arguments, au prix de pouvoir vivre”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Ήταν εκείνη η συγκεκριμένη ώρα, ακόμα και τώρα, ακόμα κι εδώ την αναγνώριζα, ώρα που αγαπούσα περισσότερο απ' όλες στο στρατόπεδο και τότε με τύλιξε ένα έντονο, οδυνηρό, μάταιο συναίσθημα: νοσταλγία”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“I already know there will be happiness. For even there, next to the chimneys, in the intervals between the torments, there was something that resembled happiness. Everyone asks only about the hardships and the “atrocities,” whereas for me perhaps it is that experience which will remain the most memorable. Yes, the next time I am asked, I ought to speak about that, the happiness of the concentration camps.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“И докато оглеждах спокойния предзалезен площад насред разбитата, но пълна с хиляди обещания улица, почувствах как расте, как се надига готовността ми: да продължа тоя непродължим живот. Няма на света безумие, което да не сме в състояние да преживеем естествено и знам, че по пътя ми вече ме дебне щастието, като неизбежен капан. Та нали още там, край комините, в паузите на страданията съществуваше нещо, което можеше да се оприличи на щастие. Всеки пита само за превратностите, за "ужасите": макар че за мен навярно именно онова преживяване е останало най-паметно. Да, това трябва да им разкажа следващия път, ако ме попитат.
Ако ме попитат. И ако самият аз не забравя.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
“Despite all deliberation, sense, insight, and sober reason, I could not fail to recognize within myself the furtive and yet—ashamed as it might be, so to say, of its irrationality—increasingly insistent voice of some muffled craving of sorts: I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.”
― Imre Kertész, quote from Fatelessness
Imre Kertész
Born place: in Budapest, Hungary
Born date November 9, 1929
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“Πάντως γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἔρωτα ἔφυγεν ἢ φεύξεται, μέχρι ἂν κάλλος ᾖ καὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ βλέπωσιν.”
― quote from Daphnis and Chloe
“I no longer had any choice in what to do next. I knew I had to go and see the only person who could bring an end to all of this, and beg the woman who killed my wife and baby to show me mercy.”
― John Marrs, quote from The Good Samaritan
“All music is the blues. All of it.”
― George Carlin, quote from Napalm & Silly Putty
“For the briefest of seconds, it was like he looked back into the stands, like maybe he spotted me, shaking my rattle, giving him all the encouragement I could. I could have sworn I saw a corner of his mouth curl up. Then he did the whole Velcro batting glove thing and stepped up to the plate.
The pitch came.
He swung.
Crack!
He hit it! He hit it! I jumped up and started shouting.
I had a second to see the stunned look on his face, like maybe he’d never hit the ball before, but that couldn’t be…
And then I realized what it was. As he started running, he turned his head, his gaze following the ball…
The ball that went out of the ballpark!
Right over the Backyard Mania billboard!
Home run!
My boyfriend had hit a home run!”
― Rachel Hawthorne, quote from The Boyfriend League
“Transcendent renunciation is developed by meditating on the preciousness of human
life in terms of the ocean of evolutionary possibilities, the immediacy of death, the
inexorability of evolutionary causality, and the sufferings of the ignorance-driven,
involuntary life cycle. Renunciation automatically occurs when you come face-to-face
with your real existential situation, and so develop a genuine sympathy for yourself,
having given up pretending the prison of habitual emotions and confusions is just fine.
Meditating on the teachings given on these themes in a systematic way enables you to
generate quickly an ambition to gain full control of your body and mind in order at least
to face death confidently, knowing you can navigate safely through the dangers of further
journeys. Wasting time investing your life in purposes that “you cannot take with you”
becomes ludicrous, and, when you radically shift your priorities, you feel a profound
relief at unburdening yourself of a weight of worry over inconsequential things”
― Padmasambhava, quote from Tibetan Book of the Dead
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Someone to Watch Ove...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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