Quotes from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Patrick Süskind ·  263 pages

Rating: (244.8K votes)


“He succeeded in being considered totally uninteresting. People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“…in that moment, as he saw and smelled how irresistible its effect was and how with lightning speed it spread and made captives of the people all around him—in that moment his whole disgust for humankind rose up again within him and completely soured his triumph, so that he felt not only no joy, but not even the least bit of satisfaction. What he had always longed for—that other people should love him—became at the moment of his achievement unbearable, because he did not love them himself, he hated them. And suddenly he knew that he had never found gratification in love, but always only in hatred—in hating and in being hated.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“He possessed the power. He held it in his hand. A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death: the invincible power to command the love of mankind. There was only one thing that power could not do: it could not make him able to smell himself.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“Not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one, an excitement burning with a cold flame.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“She was indeed a girl of exquisite beauty. She was one of those languid women made of dark honey smooth and sweet and terribly sticky.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



“He had withdrawn solely for his own personal pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“There was only one thing the perfume could not do. It could not turn him into a person who could love and be loved like everyone else. So, to hell with it he thought. To hell with the world. With the perfume. With himself”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“We are familiar with people who seek out solitude: penitents, failures, saints, or prophets. They retreat to deserts, preferably, where they live on locusts and honey. Others, however, live in caves or cells on remote islands; some-more spectacularly-squat in cages mounted high atop poles swaying in the breeze. They do this to be nearer God. Their solitude is a self-moritification by which they do penance. They act in the belief that they are living a life pleasing to God. Or they wait months, years, for their solitude to be broken by some divine message that they hope then speedily to broadcast among mankind.
Grenouille's case was nothing of the sort. There was not the least notion of God in his head. He was not doing penance or wating for some supernatural inspiration. He had withdrawn solely for his own pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid. He lay in his stony crypt like his own corpse, hardly breathing, his heart hardly beating-and yet lived as intensively and dissolutely as ever a rake lived in the wide world outside.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and malice.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



“He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“He realized that all his life he had been a nobody to everyone. What he now felt was the fear of his own oblivion. It was as though he did not exist.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles, not that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water... and at the same time it had warmth, but not as bergamot, cypress, or musk has, or jasmine or daffodils, not as rosewood has or iris... This scent was a blend of both, of evanescence and substance, not a blend, but a unity, although slight and frail as well, and yet solid and sustaining, like a piece of thin, shimmering silk... and yet again not like silk, but like pastry soaked in honey-sweet milk - and try as he would he couldn't fit those two together: milk and silk! This scent was inconceivable, indescribable, could not be categorized in any way - it really ought not to exist at all. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“ان تعاسة الانسان تنتج من كونه لا يريد أن يقبع ساكناً في غرفته هناك حيث يجب أن يكون”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



“ندرة من البشر يُلْهـِمون الحب، و هؤلاء سيكونون ضحاياه”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“It was good, really, that this external world still existed, if only as a place of refuge.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“لقد اعجب برائحة البحر لدرجة ان اشتهى الحصول عليها ، ولو مرة .. نقية دون شوائب وبكميات وافره تسكره .”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“‎جميع المشاكل تدور حول المال. حالما يطرق أحدهم هذه البوابة يكون عنده مشكلة مالية. أتمنى من كل قلبي أن أفتح مرة البوابة لأجد إنسانا عنده شيء آخر غير مشكلة المال أو أجد شخصا يحمل هدية صغيرة”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“Moonlight knew no colors and traced the contours of the terrain only very softly. It covered the land a dirty gray, strangling life all night long. This world molded in lead, where nothing moved but the wind that fell sometimes like a shadow over the gray forests, and where nothing lived but the scent of the naked earth, was the only world he accepted, for it was much like the world of his soul.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



“And because people are stupid and use their noses only for blowing, but believe absolutely anything they see with their eyes, they will say it is because this is a girl with beauty and grace and charm.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world!”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“القاعدة الثانية تقول بأن العطر يعيش مع الزمن ، فله مراحل شبابه ونضجه وشيخوخته وفقط عندما يتخطى مراحل العمر المختلفة محافظا على اريجه بالوتيرة ذاتها يعتبر عطرا ناجحا .”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“سبب تعاسة الإنسان يكمن في أنّه لا يريد الركون إلى حجرته حيث يجب أن يكون”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


“Porque los hombres podían cerrar los ojos ante la grandeza, ante el horror, ante la belleza, y cerrar los oídos a las melodías o las palabras seductoras, pero no podían sustraerse al perfume. Porque el perfume era hermano del aliento. Con él se introducía en los hombres y si éstos querían vivir, tenían que respirarlo. Y una vez en su interior, el perfume iba directo al corazón y allí decidía de modo categórico entre inclinación y desprecio, aversión y atracción, amor y odio. Quien dominaba los olores, dominaba el corazón de los hombres.”
― Patrick Süskind, quote from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer



About the author

Patrick Süskind
Born place: in Ambach, Bavaria, Germany
Born date March 26, 1949
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I hate being clever, thought the captain, when you don’t really feel clever and don’t want to be clever. To sneak around and
make plans and feel big about making them. I hate this feeling of thinking I’m doing right when I’m not really certain I am. Who
are we, anyway? The majority? Is that the answer? The majority is always holy, is it not? Always, always; just never wrong for
one little insignificant tiny moment, is it? Never ever wrong in ten million years? He thought: What is this majority and who are in
it? And what do they think and how did they get that way and will they ever change and how the devil did I get caught in this
rotten majority? I don’t feel comfortable. Is it claustrophobia, fear of crowds, or common sense? Can one man be right, while all
the world thinks they are right? Let’s not think about it. Let’s crawl around and act exciting and pull the trigger. There, and there!”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from The Martian Chronicles


“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?”
― Lao Tzu, quote from Tao Te Ching


“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values


“I can think of no concept more abused in modern Africa than sovereignty. It is used by dictators and undemocratic regimes to fend off criticism of their rule and to conceal their own maladministration and corrupt pilfering. They cloak themselves in it to dismiss the right of any outsider to hold them to account.”
― Tim Butcher, quote from Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart


“Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from The Eye of the World


Interesting books

The Moth Diaries
(2.2K)
The Moth Diaries
by Rachel Klein
Progress and Poverty
(232)
Progress and Poverty
by Henry George
Descent into Hell
(1.7K)
Descent into Hell
by Charles Williams
The Tetherballs of Bougainville
(1K)
The Tetherballs of B...
by Mark Leyner
Coldheart Canyon
(6.4K)
Coldheart Canyon
by Clive Barker
Our Lady of the Lost and Found: A Novel of Mary, Faith, and Friendship
(1.3K)
Our Lady of the Lost...
by Diane Schoemperlen

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.