Alberto Moravia > Quotes

“Good writers are monotonous, like good composers. They keep trying to perfect the one problem they were born to understand.”
― Alberto Moravia

“And we all know love is a glass which makes even a monster appear fascinating.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Woman of Rome

“You can't think on purpose about somebody or something. Either you think about them naturally or you don't think at all.”
― Alberto Moravia, Boredom

“When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Time of Indifference

“Loyalty, Signor Molteni, not love. Penelope is loyal to Ulysses but we do not know how far she loved him...and as you know people can sometimes be absolutely loyal without loving. In certain cases, in fact, loyalty is form of vengeance, of black-mail, of recovering one's self-respect. Loyalty, not love.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“This thought strengthened in me my belief that all men, without exception, deserve to be pitied, if only because they are alive.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Woman of Rome

“An uncertain evil causes anxiety because, at the bottom of one's heart, one goes on hoping till the last moment that it may not be true; a certain evil, on the other hand, instills, for a time, a kind of dreary tranquillity.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt.”
― Alberto Moravia

“...my boredom might be described as a malady affecting external objects and consisting of a withering process; an almost instantaneous loss of vitality--just as though one saw a flower change in a few seconds from a bud to decay and dust.”
― Alberto Moravia

“I gave up the unequal struggle against what appeared to be in my fate, indeed, I welcomed it with more affection. As one embraces a foe one can't defeat and I felt liberated.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Woman of Rome

“Because the world to-day is so constructed that no one can do what he would like to do, and he is forced, instead, to do what others wish him to do. Because the question of money always intrudes—into what we do, into what we are, into what we wish to become, into our work, into our highest aspirations, even into our relations with the people we love!”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“desire for normality; a longing to adapt to some recognized and general rule; a wish to be like everyone else, from the moment that being different meant being guilty.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Conformist: A Novel

“فمن المعروف أن المثقف يثأر من المرأة التي لا ترضخ له برميها بالجهل”
― Alberto Moravia, قصص قصيرة

“Sai cosa si fa quando non se ne può più? Si cambia.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Time of Indifference

“إن الأطفال ليسوا سوى خدعة تاريخية كبرى
إن أول من زعم أن الأطفال كائنات بريئة لهو أجهل الناس بالأطفال”
― Alberto Moravia, قصص قصيرة

“إنني في سبيلي إلي الموت ولسوف أموت ولن أعي ذلك وسأستمر في الذهاب والمجيء حيا في الظاهر لكن ميتا في الواقع”
― Alberto Moravia, الانتباه

“I felt that the metal of my spirit, like a bar of iron that is softened and bent by a persistent flame, was being gradually softened and bent by the troubles that oppressed it. In spite of myself, I was conscious of a feeling of envy for those who did not suffer from such troubles, for the wealthy and the privileged; and this envy, I observed, was accompanied—still against my will—by a feeling of bitterness towards them, which, in turn, did not limit its aim to particular persons or situations, but, as if by an uncontrollable bias, tended to assume the general, abstract character of a whole conception of life. In fact, during those difficult days, I came very gradually to feel that my irritation and my intolerance of poverty were turning into a revolt against injustice, and not only against the injustice which struck at me personally but the injustice from which so many others like me suffered. I was quite aware of this almost imperceptible transformation of my subjective resentments into objective reflections and states of mind, owing to the bent of my thoughts which led always and irresistibly in the same direction: owing also to my conversation, which, without my intending it, alway harped upon the same subject. I also noticed in myself a growing sympathy for those political parties which proclaimed their struggle against the evils and infamies of the society to which, in the end I had attributed the troubles that beset me—a society which, as I thought, in reference to myself, allowed its best sons to languish and protected its worst ones. Usually, and in the simpler, less cultivated people, this process occurs without their knowing it, in the dark depths of consciousness where, by a kind of mysterious alchemy, egoism is transmuted into altruism, hatred into love, fear into courage; but to me, accustomed as I was to observing and studying myself, the whole thing was clear and visible, as though I were watching it happen in someone else; and yet I was aware the whole time that I was being swayed by material subjective factors, that I was transforming purely personal motives into universal reasons.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“Vedi, non c'è coraggio e non c'è paura... ci sono soltanto coscienza ed incoscienza... la coscienza è paura, l'incoscienza è coraggio.”
― Alberto Moravia

“They say that, if we manage to live without too great an effort, it is entirely owing to the automatism which makes us unconscious of a great part of our movements. In order to take one single step, it seems, we displace an infinite number of muscles, and yet, thanks to this automatism, we are unaware of it. The same thing happens in our relations with other people.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“What was the use of seeing things clearly if the only thing clarity brought was a new and deeper darkness?”
― Alberto Moravia, Agostino

“لقد انفجرت قنبلة في رأسي لا أدري متي قنبلة جعلتني غير منتبه غير مبال شبيها بمن يسير في نومه”
― Alberto Moravia, الانتباه

“... the mystery of all things, from the greatest to the least: everything can be explained, except their existence.”
― Alberto Moravia, Conjugal Love

“Ο μυθιστοριογράφος σου δίνει να δεις από την κλειδαρότρυπα αυτά που δεν μπορείς να δεις διαφορετικά.”
― Moravia Alberto

“El amor propio es una bestia curiosa que puede dormir aun bajo los golpes más crueles; y luego se despierta, en cambio , herido de muerte por un simple rasguño.”
― Alberto Moravia, La romana

“The dark realization came to him that a difficult and miserable age had begun for him, and he couldn't imagine when it would end. [Puberty]”
― Alberto Moravia, Agostino

“...обладание истиной не только позволяет, но и заставляет действовать.”
― Alberto Moravia, The Conformist

“De la misma forma que una barra de hierro sometida a una llamapersistente se ablanda y dobla, sentía entonces que el metal de mi ánimo era gradualmenteablandado y doblado por las angustias que lo oprimían.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“... Emilia'nın her türlü kusurdan arınmış olduğunu düşünüyordum ve benim de ona öyle göründüğümü varsayıyordum. Ya da belki ben onun kusurlarını, o da benimkileri görüyordu ama aşk duygusunun ürettiği gizemli bir dönüşüm nedeniyle bu kusurlar bize sadece bağışlanabilir değil, aynı zamanda sevilebilir görünüyordu; bunlar sanki kusur değil, türünün özel bir örneği olsa bile birer nitelikti. Her neyse, biz birbirimizi yargılamıyor, seviyorduk.”
― Alberto Moravia, Contempt

“(...) aquilo que nos modifica não são os fatos extraordinários que acontecem uma só vez, mas sim esse hábito, essa longa aceitação das coisas contra as quais deixamos de nos revoltar.”
― Alberto Moravia

“الألعاب!!الحيلة التقليدية و الخدعة الكبرى التي يستتر الأطفال خلفها ليقولوا و يمارسوا نفس الأشياء التي يقولها و يمارسها الكبار و لكن تحت ستار أنهم يلعبون”
― Alberto Moravia, قصص قصيرة