Quotes from The Lost Steps

“The truth was much more beautiful.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Un día, los hombres descubrirán un alfabeto en los ojos de las calcedonias, en los pardos terciopelos de la falena, y entonces se sabrá con asombro que cada caracol manchado era, desde siempre, un poema.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“A day will come when men will discover an alphabet in the eyes of chalcedonies, in the markings of the moth, and will learn in astonishment that every spotted snail has always been a poem.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“El mito es reflejo de la realidad”.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Lo que dicen los libros es verdad.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Quien actúa de modo automático es esencia sin existencia”.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Los años se restan, se diluyen, se esfuman, en vertiginoso retroceso del tiempo”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Cuando aquí se casan, intercambian anillos, pagan arras, reciben puñados de arroz en la cabeza, ignorantes de la simbólica milenaria de sus propios gestos. Buscan el haba en la torta de Epifanía, llevan almendras al bautismo, cubren un abeto de luces y guirnaldas, sin saber qué es el haba, ni la almendra, ni el árbol que enjoyaron. Los hombres de acá ponen su orgullo en conservar tradiciones de origen olvidado, reducidas, la más de las veces, al automatismo de un reflejo colectivo - a recoger objetos de un uso desconocido, cubiertos de inscripciones que dejaron de hablar hace cuarenta siglos.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Si en estos países se moría por pasiones que me fueran incomprensibles, no por ello era la muerte menos muerte.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Es indudable que la naturaleza que aquí nos circunda es implacable, terrible, a pesar de su belleza. Pero los que en medio de ella viven la consideran menos mala, más tratable, que los espantos y sobresaltos, las crueldades frías, las amenzas siempre renovadas, del mundo de allá. Aquí, las plagas, los padecimientos posibles, los peligros naturales, son aceptados de antemano: forman parte de un Orden que tiene sus rigores. La Creación no es algo divertido, y todos lo admiten por instinto, aceptando el papel asignado a cada cual en la vasta tragedia de lo creado.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“La selva era el mundo de la mentira, de la trampa, y del falso semblante; allí todo era disfraz, estratagema, juego de apariencias, metamorfosis.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Llego a preguntarme a veces si las formas superiores de la emoción estética no consistirán, simplemente, en un supremo entendimiento de lo creado. Un día, los hombres descubrirán un alfabeto en los ojos de las calcedonias, en los pardos terciopelos de la falena, y entonces se sabrá con asombro que cada caracol manchado era, desde siempre, un poema”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Cuando se festejaba mi cumpleaños en medio de las mismas caras, en los mismos lugares, con la misma canción repetida en coro, me asaltaba invariablemente la idea de que esto sólo difería del cumpleaños anterior en la aparición de una vela más sobre un pastel cuyo sabor era idéntico al de la vez pasada.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“No acepto ya la condición de Hombre-Avispa, de Hombre-Ninguno, ni admito que el ritmo de mi existencia sea marcado por el mazo de un cómitre.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“I asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways of life that man had lost forever.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“لقد خلا حساب الزمن في وجودي خلال أسابيع وأسابيع ومواسم تركتني بلا ذاكرة حقيقية وبلا شعور غير اعتيادي ودون عاطفة مستديمة، أيامًا خلقت لدي احساسًا أن كل ايماءة أؤديها تجعلني مهووسا بفكرةستحوذ على مخيلتي هي أنني أديت تلك الحركة نفسها في وقت وفي ظروف مشابهة وأنني كنت جالسا في الركن نفسه
وأنني قلت الشيء نفسه وأنا أنظر إلى المركب الشراعي الحبيس في زجاج شفاف بخفة الورق”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“Además, ¿cuál era mi idioma verdadero? Sabía el alemán, por mi padre. Con Ruth hablaba el inglés, idioma de mis estudios secundarios; con Mouche, a menudo el francés; el español de mi Epítome de Gramática-Estos, Fabio…- con Rosario. Pero este último idioma era también el de las Vidas de Santos, empastadas en terciopelo morado, que tanto me había leído mi Madre: Santa Rosa de Lima, Rosario.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

“In the quarter where the sun should have appeared, the sky was covered by a strange reddish cloud, like smoke, like hot ashes, like a dark pollen that had arisen swiftly, stretching from one horizon to the other. When the cloud moved overhead, it began to rain butterflies on the roofs, the water jars, our shoulders. They were little butterflies, deep amaranth in color, striped in violet, which had come together by myriads in some unknown spot behind the immense jungle, frightened, perhaps, driven away, after multiplying frenziedly, by some cataclysm, some awful occurrence, without witnesses or record. The Adelantado told me that these swarms of butterflies were nothing new in the region, and that when they took place the sun was almost blotted out for the whole day. The burial of the father would have to be carried out by candlelight in a day that was night, reddened by wings.”
― Alejo Carpentier, quote from The Lost Steps

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“Look, I don’t do this,” I said. “I don’t know why I’m doing this—this posturing. I’m not any good at it. I came here to give you back the camera and to talk to you. I thought you’d be alone, so we could talk. But as expected, a guy like you has dogs hot on his scent and—” I looked at Tamala. “—bitches can be very territorial, so I’m going to just go.” Tamala dramatically swung her hips as she approached me. “Did you just call me a dog and a bitch?” “Actually…you were redundant. They are one in the same. So, yes, I did.” Tamala charged after me, forcing Eric to immediately stand between her and me.”
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― The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, quote from The LDS Scriptures: Unabridged Complete King James Version Holy Bible /The Book of Mormon / Doctrine and Covenants / The Pearl of Great Price

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Do you desire to be that Lady of God? God desires a relationship with you. He's made this relationship possible by sending His Son. That inner void is filled through a relationship with the Lord. The place to start to fulfill the longing in your heart is to trust in the Lord for His salvation and allow the Holy Spirit to work within you to satisfy your thirst. As we go together to the well that never runs dry, I know the savior of our soul will meet us there. We will drink from the water of life He gives, the water that quenches our thirsty souls.”
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“At the same time, he expressed accurately and powerfully the state of mind of the countless underground fighters dying in the battle against Nazism. Why did they throw their lives into the scale? Why did they accept tor­ture and death? They had no point of support like the Fuhrer for the Germans or the New Faith for the Communists. It is doubtful whether most of them believed in Christ. It could only have been loyalty, loyalty to something called fatherland or honor, but something stronger than any name. In one of his stories, a young boy, tortured by the police and knowing that he will be shot, gives the name of his friend because he is afraid to die alone. They meet before the firing squad, and the betrayed forgives his betrayer. This forgiveness cannot be justified by any utilitarian ethic; there is no reason to forgive traitors. Had this story been written by a Soviet author, the betrayed would have turned away with disdain from the man who had succumbed to base weakness.”
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