Quotes from The Double

“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Reading is probably another way of being in a place.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“لستُ مريضًا، كل ما في الأمر أن كل شيء يتعبني ويضجرني، هذه الرتابة الملعونة، التكرار، التشابه.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“...sometimes we ask ourselves why happiness took so long to arrive, why it didn't come sooner, but appears suddenly, as now, when we've given up hope of it ever arriving, it's likely then that we won't know what to do, and rather than it being a question of choosing between laughter and tears, we will be filled by a secret anxiety to which we might not know how to respond at all.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“We have an odd relationship with words. We learn a few when we are small, throughout our lives we collect others through education, conversation, our contact with books, and yet, in comparison, there are only a tiny number about whose meaning, sense, and denotation we would have absolutely no doubts, if one day, we were to ask ourselves seriously what they meant. Thus we affirm and deny, thus we convince and are convinced, thus we argue, deduce, and conclude, wandering fearlessly over the surface of concepts about which we only have the vaguest of ideas, and, despite the false air of confidence that we generally affect as we feel our way along the road in verbal darkness, we manage, more or less, to understand each other and even, sometimes, to find each other.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Costuma-se dizer, dêmos tempo ao tempo, mas aquilo que sempre nos esquecemos de perguntar é se haverá tempo para dar.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“O melhor caminho para uma desculpabilização universal é chegar à conclusão de que, porque toda a gente tem culpas, ninguém é culpado.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Every second that passes is like a door that opens to allow in what has not yet happened, what we call the future, but, to challenge the contradictory nature of what we have just said, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the future is just an immense void, that the future is just the time on which the eternal present feeds.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“...a veces nos preguntamos por qué la felicidad tarda tanto en llegar, por qué no vino antes, pero si nos aparece de repente, como en este caso, cuando ya no la esperábamos, entonces lo más probable es que no sepamos qué hacer con ella, y la cuestión no es tanto elegir entre reír o llorar, es la secreta angustia de pensar que tal vez no consigamos estar a su altura”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Such is our need to shower blame on some distant entity when it is we who lack the courage to face up to what is there before us.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“..there are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“We all know that each day that dawns is the first for some and will be the last for others, and that for most people it will be just another day.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Ao contrário do que julga o senso comum, as coisas da vontade nunca são simples, o que é simples é a indecisão, a incerteza, a irresolução.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Contrary to what most people think, making a decision is one of the easiest decisions in the world, as is more than proved by the fact that we make decision upon decision throughout the day, there, however, we run straight into the heart of the matter, for these decisions always come to us afterward with their particular little problems, or, to make ourselves quite clear, with their rough edges needing to be smoothed, the first of these problems being our capacity for sticking to a decision and the second our willingness to follow it through.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“We all know, however, that the enormous weight of tradition, habit, and custom that occupies the greater part of our brain bears down pitilessly on the more brilliant and innovative ideas of which the remaining part is capable, and although it is true that, in some cases, this weight can balance the excesses and extravagances of the imagination that would lead us God knows where were they given free rein, it is equally true that it often has a way of subtly submitting what we believed to be our free will to unconscious tropisms, like a plant that does not know why it will always have to lean toward the side from which the light comes.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“فهمت لماذا تضجر! لأنه لا شيء يجد قبولاً في نظرك ”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“ إنَّ العيشَ وحيداً بالنسبة إلى الأمزجة الكئيبة، الهشّة عموماً، وقليلة الليونة، عقابٌ شديد القسوة، لكن ذلك، ولنعترف به، على إجهاده، لا يولّد المآسي المؤثرة إلا نادراً، مآسٍ من النوع الذي تقشعرُّ له الأبدان أو ترتعد له الفرائص. ما يحدث في أغلب الأحيان، إلى درجة لم تعد تدهش كائناً من كان، هو أن الناس يقبلون بصبر أن يسبروا بعناية أقلّ زوايا عزلتهم، كما تشهد على ذلك في ماض قريب أمثلة عامة، وإن كانت كتيمة، بل والتي عَرَفت في حالتين نهاية سعيدة. ”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Tanto é o que precisamos de lançar culpas a algo distante quando o que nos faltou foi a coragem de encarar o que estava na nossa frente.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“It was said that one of them, either the actor or the history teacher, was superfluous in this world, but you weren't, you weren't superfluous, there is no duplicate of you to come and replace you at your mother's side, you were unique, just as every ordinary person is unique, truly unique.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“The devil doesn't make plans, anyway, if men were good, he wouldn't even exist.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Ao contrário do que em geral se pensa, tomar uma decisão é uma das decisões mais fáceis deste mundo, como cabalmente se demonstra pelo facto de não fazermos masi nada que multiplicá-las ao longo de todo o santíssimo dia, porém, e aí esbarramos com o busílis da questão, elas sempre nos vêm a posteriori com os seus problemazinhos particulares, ou, para que fiquemos a entender-nos, com os seus rabos por esfolar, sendo o primeiro deles o nosso grau de capacidade para mantê-las e o segundo o nosso grau de vontade para realizá-las.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Estar de acordo nem sempre significa compartilhar uma razão, o mais costume é reunirem-se pessoas à sombra de uma opinião como se ela fosse um guarda chuva”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Cuanto más te disfraces más te parecerás a ti mismo.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“But appearances, while not always as deceptive as people say.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Contrary to popular belief, the helpful words that open the way to great, dramatic dialogues are, in general, modest, ordinary, banal, no one would think that Would you like a cup of coffee could serve as an introduction to a bitter debate about feelings that have died or to the sweetness of a reconciliation that neither person knows how to bring about.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Por no tener con quién hablar acabarán un día sin tener nada que decir.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“ إن الأشياء تتحقق في الواقع بقدر أقلّ من الإطراء المبالغ فيه ”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Infelizmente, el sentido común no siempre aparece cuando es necesario, siendo muchas las veces en que de su ausencia momentánea han resultado los mayores dramas y las catástrofes más aterradoras.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

“Finding these events set down in the history book did not change her mind in the least, all the textbook did was collect together the free-flowing fantasies of the person who had written it, and there was clearly little difference between those fantasies and the ones you could find in a novel.”
― José Saramago, quote from The Double

About the author

Popular quotes

“Once a person gave his talent to the world, the world put a stamp upon it. The talent was not a personal possession any more. It was something to be traded, bought and sold. It fetched a high price, or a low one. It was kicked in the common market.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from The Parasites

“Guilt is a tireless horse. Grief ages into sorrow, and sorrow is an enduring rider.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from The Darkest Evening of the Year

“thought you had liberal views on what women should be allowed to do. It’s not as if I were suggesting joining one of your hideous hunts. I imagine that there aren’t wild animals behind every rock in Turkey waiting to charge at helpless humans.” “I wouldn’t object in principle to your going to Troy, but I will admit that I don’t view you as an adventurous type.” His eyes searched my own. “Beast! You don’t know me at all.” “Would you have the wardrobe?” He was laughing, and I realized he was teasing me. “Isn’t Ephesus in Turkey? Perhaps I could visit there on the same trip. I’ll send you a note from the Temple of Artemis, where I assure you I will not appear in evening clothes.” “I didn’t realize you had an interest in antiquity.” “Philip inspired me.” We had reached the rue de Rivoli and were nearly at the Meurice. “Let’s keep walking; I would like to see the river at night.” We turned away from the hotel and walked until we reached the Pont-Neuf. The air had grown chilly, and I had not worn even a light wrap; Colin stood near me to shield me from the wind blowing over the bridge. “Can you imagine how many people have crossed this bridge?” I asked. “It must be three hundred years old. Do you think that Marie Antoinette ever stood here and looked across the Seine at the city?” “Hardly. I think she would have had a greater appreciation for the views at Versailles.” “We consider this bridge old, but if it were in Athens, would anyone even comment on it? I shouldn’t be impressed with anything less than two thousand years old if I were in Greece.” “Then you would miss some particularly fine Roman ruins, my dear. Why don’t you plan a nice, civilized trip to Athens on your way to Santorini when you go?” “I shall have to see how it fits with my plan to visit Troy.” Colin shook his head and took my arm. I let him guide me back to the hotel, but not before contemplating at some length the pleasure I derived from his standing so close to me.   COLIN CALLED ON ME the next afternoon, and I confess I was delighted to see him. I planned to dine in my rooms that evening and invited him to join me. He readily accepted. “What time shall I return?” he asked. “I’ll only need to dress.” “Don’t be silly,” I replied. “We shan’t dress. I ordered a light supper and asked to have it early. It’s only the two of us, and”
― Tasha Alexander, quote from And Only to Deceive

“I like my women in a few wisps of drapery: then I can hope for a chance to remove the wisps. If they start out with nothing I tend to get depressed because either they have just stripped off for someone else or, in my line of work, they are usually dead.”
― Lindsey Davis, quote from The Silver Pigs

“Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.”
― Samuel Butler, quote from The Way of All Flesh

Interesting books

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.