I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.

Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.

In the middle of the night, he woke up and realized to his surprise that he had been having one erotic dream after the other. The only one he could recall with any clarity was...

The Greek word for “return” is nostos. Algos means “suffering.” So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.

There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which is deeply buried from view), consists...

If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect.

What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is easy enough: it means not lying, not hiding, and not dissimulating.

Właśnie takie detale: źle dobrany strój, drobna wada uzębienia, czarująca przeciętność duszy, czynią kobietę prawdziwą i żywą. Kobiety z plakatów czy z rewii mody, do których wszystkie starają się dziś upodobnić, nie są pociągające, ponieważ...

[mother] belonged to a realm of other creatures: smaller, lighter, more easily blown away.

Sí, de repente lo ví así: la mayoría de la gente se engaña mediante una doble creencia errónea: cree en el eterno recuerdo (de la gente, de las cosas, de los actos, de las naciones)...

The novel is born not of the theoretical spirit but of the spirit of humor.

Long ago one of the Cynic philosophers strutted through the streets of Athens in a torn mantle to make himself admired by everyone by displaying his contempt for convention. One day Socrates met him and...

It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect, probably transitory, which only very limited minds can declare to be a certainty...

(God) being the old man invented in order to, and with whom to, hold long conversations.

As early as 1930 Schoenberg wrote: “Radio is an enemy, a ruthless enemy marching irresistibly forward, and any resistance is hopeless”; it “force-feeds us music . . . regardless of whether we want to hear...

Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in bathing suits fling themselves into the water, it is joy itself that shows...

Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle,...

Los amores son como los imperios: cuando desaparece la idea sobre la cual han sido construidos, perecen ellos también.

In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted

Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once you’ve brought breakfast in bed you’ll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal.

I have become so pessimistic that these days I’d even choose the truth over friendship.

In Irena’s head the alcohol plays a double role: it frees her fantasy, encourages her boldness, makes her sensual, and at the same time it dims her memory. She makes love wildly, lasciviously, and at...

The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.

I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn’t know who I was or wanted to be.

Because to live in a world in which no one is forgiven, where all are irredeemable, is the same as living in hell.

How could she feel nostalgia when he was right in front of her? How can you suffer from the absence of a person who is present? You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the...

The longing for Paradise is man’s longing not to be man.

She blushed. It is a beautiful thing when a woman blushes; at that instant her body no longer belongs to her; she doesn’t control it; she is at its mercy; oh, can there be anything...

Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer...

le but que l’on poursuit est toujours voilé. Une jeune fille qui a envie de se marier a envie d’une chose qui lui est tout à fait inconnue. Le jeune homme qui court après la...

Do stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? For all my skepticism, some trace of irrational superstition did survive in me, the strange conviction, for example, that everything in life that happens to...

pour occuper la scène il faut en repousser les autres. Ce qui suppose une technique de combat spéciale. le combat que mène le danseur, Pontevin l’appelle le judo moral ; le danseur jette le gant...

But isn’t it true that an author can write only about himself?

They shout that they want to shape a better future, but it’s not true. The future is only an indifferent void no one cares about,but the past is filled with life, and its countenance is...

They were ready to sell people a future in exchange for their past… They wanted to compel him to cast his life away and become a shadow, a man without past, an actor without a...

Il peut arriver des situations (dans les régimes dictatoriaux, par exemple) où prendre publiquement position est dangereux ; pour le danseur ce l’est pourtant un peu moins que pour les autres, car, s’étant promené sous...

Todos consideramos impensable que el amor de nuestra vida pueda ser algo leve, sin peso; creemos que nuestro amor es algo que tenía que ser; que sin él nuestra vida no sería nuestra vida. Nos...

Dreaming is not only an act of communication; it is also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself. Our dreams prove that to imagine – to...

Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

The assassination of Allende quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Bohemia, the bloody massacre in Bangladesh caused Allende to be forgotten, the din of war in the Sinai Desert drowned out...

Do you think that a doe in the jaws of a tiger feels less horror than you? People thought up the idea that animals don’t have the same capability for suffering as humans, because otherwise...

En realidad Jesús era un jovencito y es probable que no supier amucho de la vida. Es posible que todas sus enseñanzas puedan explicarse sólo a partir de su juventud y su inexperiencia. De su...

The more vast the amount of time we’ve left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us to return to it. This pronouncement seems to state the obvious and yet it is false....

Tereza’s mother never stopped reminding her that being a mother meant sacrificing everything. Her words had the ring of truth, backed as they were by the experience of a woman who had lost everything because...

nostalgia” en su forma griega y prefieren decir Sehnsucht: deseo de lo que está ausente; pero Sehnsucht puede aludir tanto a lo que fue como a lo que nunca ha sido (una nueva aventura), por...

Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.

Aesthetic racism is almost always a sign of inexperience. Those who have not made their way far enough into the world of amorous delights judge women only by what can be seen. But those who...

Darling, my darling, don’t think that I don’t love you or that I didn’t love you, but it’s precisely because I love you that I couldn’t have become what I am today if you were...

He was no longer quite sure whether anything he had ever thought or felt was truly his own property, or whether his thoughts were merely a common part of the world’s store of ideas which...