ZGA PARTNERS Corporate Recruiters > ZGA's Quotes

“Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order.”
― Samuel Beckett

“It seems that what I really want is a drug that will increase my consciousness of others, not myself.”
― Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird

“Life is a state of mind.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, Being There

“All cats are the same in the dark, says the proverb. But it certainly did not apply to people, with them it was just the opposite. During the day they were all alike, running in their well-defined ways. At night they changed beyond recognition.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Painted Bird

“When people claim to know who I am, I can no longer act freely.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.”
― Jerzy Kosinski

“So this is insanity. How interesting. What happens next?”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“There is serenity and calm under the water's surface. You move easily and glimpse a world you have never seen before. You think of running out of oxygen and the idea of sharks dart out at you. You sense that there is something treacherous hiding behind every reef; no matter how much you explore you won't ever know what it is.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“People prefer to avoid confronting deformity and when they do it's only for kicks.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“Living is an arbitrary matter and I have every right to renounce it.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“Of all mammals, only a human being can say 'no.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Devil Tree

“Accents don't show up in music.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, Pinball

“Aware of its value as a restorative, I stole only black caviar.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, Steps

“Mr. Kosinski won the National Book Award for Steps,”
― Jerzy Kosiński, Steps

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
― Franz Kafka

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
― Francis Bacon

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”
― Sir Francis Bacon

“If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.”
― Arnold Schoenberg, Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg

“You cried for night - it falls. Now cry in darkness.”
― Samuel Beckett

“And the rest is rust and stardust.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.”
― Vladimir Nabokov

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“What labels me, negates me.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Either - Or

“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I

“... Believe a woman, you will regret it, believe her not, you will also regret that; believe a woman or believe her not, you will regret both; whether you believe a woman or believe her not, you will regret both. ...
This, gentlemen, is the sum and substance of all philosophy.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I

“Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight to avoid this?”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I