“Every passion or wicked thought, every affliction or crime, every rebellion or catastrophe necessarily casts its shadow before it long before it manifests itself in real life.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“The government can catch a hare with an oxcart!”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“Who can say it’s not what we see with our eyes open that is distorted, and that what’s described here isn’t the true essence of things?” He slowed down outside a door. “Haven’t you ever heard old men sigh that life’s a dream?”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“This is where they keep the dreams about the end of the world, according to the inhabitants of places where the winters are very windy.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“Some people,” the Vizier went on, “think it’s the world of anxieties and dreams – your world, in short – that governs this one. I myself think it’s from this world that everything is governed. I think it’s this world that chooses the dreams and anxieties and imaginings that ought to be brought to the surface, as a bucket draws water from a well. Do you see what I mean? It’s this world that selects what it wants from the abyss.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“No existe pasión o pensamiento maléfico, adversidad o catástrofe, rebelión o crimen, que no proyecte su sombra en los sueños antes de materializarse en el mundo.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“إن العالم باهت إلى الدرجة التي لا يستحق معها عناء العذاب بسبب التفكير بأننا قد نفقده.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“[...] afirmaban que el Apocalipsis no era sino el día en que los sueños saldrían de la cárcel del dormir, pues la resurrección de los muertos que la gente concibe de forma trivial y metafísica, se produciría precisamente de ese modo. ¿No eran acaso los sueños mensajes enviados por ellos? Esta reivindicación secular de los muertos, este ruego, lamento, protesta, llámese como se quiera, será un día tomada en cuenta.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“¿Entiendes lo que te quiero decir? Si el globo terrestre desapareciera un día, si, por ejemplo, la Tierra se estrellase contra un cometa, se despedazara y se volatilizase o simplemente se precipitara en el abismo, si por tanto nuestro globo desapareciera sin dejar otro rastro que este sótano repleto de cartapacios, este sótano bastaría para comprender lo que había sido este mundo.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
“Los delirios eran escasos com tiburones atrapados en las redes repletas de peces comunes”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams
Ismail Kadare
Born place: in Gjirokastër, Albania
Born date January 28, 1936
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“But when I open them up, I find that they’re equal! And they both have achieved the same destiny: my zinc gurney. Why, then, did he tire himself out poring over so many books? Boh! Take my advice, journalist: eat, drink, and enjoy yourself—”
― Douglas Preston, quote from The Monster of Florence
“Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man; for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you. If you had waited a little while, your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature. For I am far advanced in years, as you may perceive, and not far from death. I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death. And I have another thing to say to them: You think that I was convicted through deficiency of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid, I might have gained an acquittal. Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words - certainly not. But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others, and which, as I say, are unworthy of me. But I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger: nor do I now repent of the manner of my defence, and I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too, go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must abide by my award - let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated, - and I think that they are well.”
― Plato, quote from Apology
“The phantom pains of the wolf attack still plagued him somewhat, but they had lost much of their power. They were only illusions. They would not deter him. What was real was the air in his lungs, the power in his limbs and the strength of his will. Backlit by the sun shining down into the glade, Richter took a step forward to go and finish what he had started. It was in that moment of true purpose that he looked down and realized he was completely naked. “Universe, you’re a dick.”
― Aleron Kong, quote from The Land: Founding
“Social gains are never handed out. They must be seized.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, quote from Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
“Peter's a lucky man except in one respect, he doesn't seem to know how lucky he is.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home
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