Quotes from Indignation

Philip Roth ·  233 pages

Rating: (11.7K votes)


“You be greater than your feelings. I don't demand this of you - life does. Otherwise you'll be washed away by feelings. You'll be washed out to sea and never seen again.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“other people's weakness can destroy you just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“It was my job not just to pluck the chickens but to eviscerate them. I hated that part. Nauseating and disgusting, but it had to be done. That's what I learned from my father and what I loved learning from him: that you do what you have to do.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Is that what eternity is for, to muck over a lifetime's minutiae? Who could have imagined that one would have forever to remember each moment of life down to its tiniest component?”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Of a terrible, the incomprehensible way one's most banal, incidental, even comical choices archive the most disproportionate result.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



“وكلما تغيرت قسمات وجهها، تغيّر جمالها. لم تكن فتاة جميلة واحدة، بل كانت خمسًا وعشرين فتاة جميلة مختلفة”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“أمن أجل ذلك صُنع الخلود، لكي يخوض المرء في تفاصيل عمره؟”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“ضعف الآخرين قد يحطّمك بالقدر الذي تستطيع قوتهم أن تفعل ذلك”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“I wouldn’t so much as stick my head in a pool hall. Oh, look, this is as far as I go explaining what I am and am not like. I will not explain myself one more time. I will not make an inventory of my attributes for people or mention my goddamn sense of duty. I will not take one more round of his ridiculous, nonsensical crap!” Whereupon,”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“It’s about life, where the tiniest misstep can have tragic consequences.” “Oh,”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



“other people’s weakness can destroy you just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength. A”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“That’s what I learned from my father and what I loved learning from him: that you do what you have to do.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“И наистина беше откачил от притеснение, че скъпоценното му единствено дете не е подготвено за опасностите на живота досущ като всеки друг младеж, комуто предстои да стане мъж; откачил от плашещото откритие, че едно малко момченце расте, източва се и засенчва родителите си и няма как да го задържиш, че трябва да му дадеш свободата да се откъсне от теб и да тръгне по света.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Αγκάστηκα να σωπάσω για λίγο, για να ξαναβρώ τη φωνή μου και να συνέλθω από τα λόγια της που με είχαν ξαναγυρίσει στην κατάσταση του νηπίου, η οποία δεν είναι τίποτε άλλο από την ανάγκη για αδιάκοπη γαλούχηση”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Beyond your dormitories, a world is on fire and you are kindled by underwear. Beyond your fraternities, history unfolds daily—warfare, bombings, wholesale slaughter, and you are oblivious of it all. Well, you won’t be oblivious for long! You can be as stupid as you like, can”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



“what his uneducated father had been trying so hard to teach him all along: of the terrible, the incomprehensible way one’s most banal, incidental, even comical choices achieve the most disproportionate result.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“You be greater than your feelings. I don’t demand this of you—life does. Otherwise you’ll be washed away by feelings. You’ll be washed out to sea and never seen again. Feelings can be life’s biggest problem. Feelings can play the most terrible tricks. They”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Una ragazza in effetti c'era. Non era ancora in ballo, però ci avevo già messo gli sopra. Era una studentessa del secondo anno che come me si era appena trasferita a Winesburg, pallida e snella, con capelli castani scuri e un modo di fare che m'intimidiva per come mi pareva distaccato e risoluto. Seguiva le mie stesse lezioni di storia americana e a volte sedeva proprio accanto a me, ma non volendo correre il rischio di sentirmi dire di lasciarla in pace, non avevo trovato il coraggio di farle neppure un cenno di saluto, e tanto meno di parlarle. Una sera la vidi in biblioteca.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“wonderful except when it came to eviscerating chickens. And even that was wonderful in its way, because it was something you did, and did well, that you didn’t care to do. So there was a lesson in doing it. And”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Mark my words, Messner: the world is waiting, it’s licking its chops, to take your boy away.’” “And my”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



“My father believes not what he sees with his eyes for an entire lifetime, instead he believes what he’s told by the plumber on his knees fixing the toilet in the back of the store!” I couldn’t stop. He’d been driven crazy by the chance remark of a plumber! “Yeah,”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“At the outset of my mature life, before everything suddenly became so difficult, I had a great talent for being satisfied. I’d”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Или страхът му за мен се коренеше в страха за самия него, защото петдесетгодишен, след като цял живот се бе радвал на добро здраве, енергичният нисичък мъж бе започнал да развива упорита, дразщеща кашлица, която, макар за майка ми да бе притеснителна, не му пречеше да държи димяща цигара в крайчеца на устата си по цял ден. Каквато и да бе причината – или съвкупността от причини, – подклаждаща тази рязка промяна в иначе благото му родителско поведение, този страх се проявяваше в желанието на баща ми да ме преследва денонощно и да знае точното ми местонахождение във всеки един момент. Къде ходиш? Защо не си беше у дома? Откъде да знам къде отиваш, като излезеш? Ти си младеж с великолепно бъдеще пред себе си – откъде да знам, че не ходиш някъде, където може да те убият?

Въпросите бяха нелепи, понеже, докато учех в горния курс, се бях доказал като благоразумен, отговорен, старателен, трудолюбив отличник, който излизаше с най-красивите момичета, участваше активно в съревнованията по дебати и беше ефикасен инфилдър в училищния бейзболен отбор, като при това съжителстваше в относително разбирателство с правилата за поведение в квартала и гимназията. Въпросите бяха и влудяващи – един вид бащата, с когото бях толкова близък през всичките тези години, бащата, до когото буквално израснах в магазина, вече не знаеше кой е синът му и какво представлява.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“– Тогава за какво е цялата работа, татко?
– Заради живота, където и едничка стъпка накриво може да доведе до трагични последици.
– О, боже, звучиш като мъдрост от курабийка с късметче.
– Така ли? Така значи? Не като притеснен баща, а като курабийка с късметче? Така звуча, когато говоря със сина си за бъдещето, което го очаква и което може да се провали и от най-малкото, от най-миниатюрното нещо?
– О, мътните го взели бъдещето! – изкрещях аз и изтичах навън, питайки се откъде да открадна кола, за да стигна до Скрантън и да поиграя билярд, а защо не и да си лепна гонорея?”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“vowing himself to “just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.” After”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



“I can’t say that I blame them. I can’t say that I would expect any daughter of mine to remain loyal to an educational institution where she has been exposed not merely to belittlement and humiliation and fear but to a genuine threat of physical harm by an army of hoodlums imagining, apparently, that they were emancipating themselves. Because”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“As in life, I know only what is, and in death what is turns out to be what was. You”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“You are not just shackled to your life while living it, you continue to be stuck with it after you’re gone. Or,”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“Human conduct can be regulated, and it will be regulated! The”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation


“so conspicuous was his abhorrence of “rebellious insolence” that he might have been enunciating the name of a menace resolved to undermine not just Winesburg, Ohio, but the great republic itself.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation



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About the author

Philip Roth
Born place: in Newark, New Jersey, The United States
Born date March 19, 1933
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