Quotes from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“يا إلهنا العزيز، ارحم رجالاً أنفقوا أعمارهم في تخيل الأشياء!!”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Every novel is like this, desperation, a frustrated attempt to save something of the past. Except that it still has not been established whether it is the novel that prevents man from forgetting himself or the impossibility of forgetfulness that makes him write novels.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Claro que estamos em guerra, e é guerra de sítio, cada um de nós cerca o outro e é cercado por ele, queremos deitar abaixo os muros do outro e continuar com os nossos, o amor será não haver mais barreiras, o amor é o fim do cerco.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“أن الجنون في الإنسان ناجم عن اصطدام الإنسان بذكائه ذاته”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Certaines relations harmonieuses se créent et durent grâce à un système complexe de menues contre-vérités, de renoncements, une espèce de ballet complice d'attitudes et de postures qui peut se résumer dans un proverbe jamais assez cité, ou plutôt une sentence, cette désignation lui convenant beaucoup mieux, Toi et moi nous savons, mais tais-toi et je me tairai. (ch. 5)”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Switch on the light, she said, I want to know if this is real.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“We can be only too grateful that an Archbishop of Braga should have immersed himself so deeply in theological speculation, armed and equipped as he was for war, with his coat of mail, his broadsword dangling from the”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“pommel of his saddle and his helmet with a nose-piece, arms which might well prevent him from reaching any conclusions based on humanitarian logic,”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“...everything that is not literature is life.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“الفضيلة ليست شديدة السهولة مثل الرذيلة، لكن يمكن أن يستعان عليها”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Devemos é reparar nas diferenças entre aquele tempo e este tempo, para falar, como para matar, é preciso chegar perto”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“[...] de tudo isso se podendo concluir que os homens são incapazes de dizer quem são se não puderem alegar que são outra coisa.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“[...] porque nadie sabe lo que el beso es verdaderamente, tal vez la devoración imposible, tal vez una comunión demoníaca, tal vez el principio de la muerte.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“To look, see and observe are different ways of using the organ of sight, each with its own intensity, even when there is some deterioration, for example, to look without seeing, when someone is distracted, a common situation in traditional novels, or to see and not notice, when the eyes out of weariness and boredom avoid anything likely to tax them. Only by observing can we achieve full vision, when at a given moment or successively, our attention becomes concentrated,”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“[...] el universo murmura bajo la lluvia, Dios mío, qué dulce y suave tristeza, y que no nos falte nunca, ni siquiera en las horas de alegría.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Raimundo Silva entered, said good morning to no one in particular, and sat at a table behind the showcase where the usual tempting delicacies were on display, sponges, mille feuilles, cream cornets, tartlets, rice cakes, mokatines and, those inevitable croissants, in the shape dictated by the French word, a pastry that has risen only to collapse at the first bite and disintegrate until there are nothing but crumbs left on the plate, tiny celestial bodies which the huge wet finger of Allah is lifting to his mouth, then all that remains will be a terrible cosmic void, if being and nothingness are compatible.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“Raimundo Silva pensou, pessoanamente, Se eu fumasse, acenderia agora um cigarro, a olhar o rio, pensando como tudo é vago e vário, assim, não fumando, apenas pensarei que tudo é vário e vago, realmente, mas sem cigarro, ainda que o cigarro, se o fumasse, por si mesmo exprimisse a variedade e a vaguidade das coisas, como o fumo, se fumasse.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“...la experiencia nos muestra diariamente que cada palabra es un peligroso aprendiz de brujo.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

“[...] la gran prueba de la sabiduría es tener presente que hasta los sentimientos deben saber administrar el tiempo.”
― José Saramago, quote from The History of the Siege of Lisbon

About the author

Popular quotes

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”
― Pierce Brown, quote from Red Rising

“Maybe. But in my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love.’ Like falling in love. Do the young still fall in love, or is that mechanism obsolete by now, unnecessary, quaint, like steam locomotion? He is out of touch, out of date. Falling in love could have fallen out of fashion and come back again half a dozen times, for all he knows.”
― J.M. Coetzee, quote from Disgrace

“Ivy shook her head with a look of disgust. "So you got caught. Big freaking deal. They knew who Rachel was, and you don't see her whining over it."
Actually, I had thrown my tantrum on the way home, which might have accounted for the odd noise Francis's car was making when I left it in the mall parking lot in the shade of a tree.
Jenks darted to hover three inches before Ivy's nose. His wings were red in anger. "You have a gardener trap you in a glass ball and see if it doesn't give you a new outlook on life, Little Miss Merry Sunshine."
My bad mood slipped away as I watched a four-inch pixy confront a vamp.”
― Kim Harrison, quote from Dead Witch Walking

“You know, when it works, love is amazing. It's not overrated.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from This Lullaby

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Eleven Minutes

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.