Quotes from Waiting for Godot

“The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?

Vladimir: Yes, yes, we're magicians.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Je suis comme ça. Ou j'oublie tout de suite ou je n'oublie jamais."

Samuel BECKETT, En attendant Godot

I'm like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget. ”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Vladimir: Did I ever leave you?
Estragon: You let me go.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for one the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflexion, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come -- ”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“ESTRAGON: I can't go on like this.
VLADIMIR: That's what you think.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: I'm like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“VLADIMIR: What do they say?
ESTRAGON: They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR: To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON: They have to talk about it.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: People are bloody ignorant apes.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“ESTRAGON: Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!
VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?
ESTRAGON: You let me go.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Vladimir: I don't understand.
Estragon: Use your intelligence, can't you?
Vladimir uses his intelligence.
Vladimir: (finally) I remain in the dark.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“That's how it is on this bitch of an earth.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“POZZO:
I am blind.
(Silence.)
ESTRAGON:
Perhaps he can see into the future.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“There is man in his entirety, blaming his shoe when his foot is guilty.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“We always find something, eh Didi, to let us think we exist?”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“I’m like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest, we are bored to death, there's no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. Come, let's get to work! (He advances towards the heap, stops in his stride.) In an instant all will vanish and we'll be alone more, in the midst of nothingness!”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot?”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

“We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Waiting for Godot

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“The World Has Need Of You”

everything here
seems to need us
—Rainer Maria Rilke

I can hardly imagine it
as I walk to the lighthouse, feeling the ancient
prayer of my arms swinging
in counterpoint to my feet.
Here I am, suspended
between the sidewalk and twilight,
the sky dimming so fast it seems alive.
What if you felt the invisible
tug between you and everything?
A boy on a bicycle rides by,
his white shirt open, flaring
behind him like wings.
It’s a hard time to be human. We know too much
and too little. Does the breeze need us?
The cliffs? The gulls?
If you’ve managed to do one good thing,
the ocean doesn’t care.
But when Newton’s apple fell toward the earth,
the earth, ever so slightly, fell
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― Ellen Bass, quote from Like a Beggar

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