Ferenc Máté > Quotes

“We seldom consider how much of our lives we must render in return for some object we barely want, seldom need, buy only because it was put before us...And this is understandable given the workings of our system where without a job we perish, where if we don't want a job and are happy to get by we are labeled irresponsible, non-contributing leeches on society. But if we hire a fleet of bulldozers, tear up half the countryside and build some monstrous factory, casino or mall, we are called entrepreneurs, job-creators, stalwarts of the community. Maybe we should all be shut away on some planet for the insane. Then again, maybe that is where we are.”
― Ferenc Mate, A Reasonable Life: Toward a Simpler, Secure, More Humane Existence

“- I have the impression that we are the last people on Earth.
- It wouldn't be so bad. We would have all the wine of the world to ourselves.”
― Ferenc Máté, A Vineyard in Tuscany: A Wine Lover's Dream

“We walk into the olive grove and sit in the dry grass on the bluff. The monastery and the whole world lie before us. Purples, yellows, pinks and blues but all washed, hazy, indefinite, dreamy. The world was dissolving, vanishing. And if you half-closed your eyes, you could see yourself from afar, dissolving in the haze. You could see yourself turning into light.”
― Ferenc Máté, The Hills of Tuscany

“- Mam wrażenie, że jesteśmy ostatnimi ludźmi na Ziemi.
- To nie byłoby takie złe. Mielibyśmy dla siebie całe wino świata.”
― Ferenc Máté, A Vineyard in Tuscany: A Wine Lover's Dream

“We would mull over the ills of Italy and the ills of the world, and conclude at the end that everyone's crazy so what's the use, let's go have some lunch and a little wine.”
― Ferenc Máté, The Hills of Tuscany

“So much space, such silence, so much time. To drift. To think. To let your mind roam anywhere it pleases. To dream. Perhaps the true luxury of our age is not the piles of goods we endlessly accumulate, but Time.”
― Ferenc Máté, The Hills of Tuscany