Fernanda > Fernanda's Quotes

“A saudade é uma tatuagem na alma: só nos livramos dela perdendo um pedaço de nós.”
― Mia Couto, O Outro Pé da Sereia

“Um exército de ovelhas liderado por um leão é capaz de derrotar um exército de leões liderado por uma ovelha.”
― Mia Couto, A Confissão da Leoa

“Words are like that, they deceive, they pile up, it seems they do not know where to go, and, suddenly, because of two or three or four that suddenly come out, simple in themselves, a personal pronoun, an adverb, an adjective, we have the excitement of seeing them coming irresistibly to the surface through the skin and the eyes and upsetting the composure of our feelings, sometimes the nerves that can not bear it any longer, they put up with a great deal, they put up with everything, it was as if they were wearing armor, we might say.”
― Jose Saramago, Blindness

“Just as the habit does not make the monk, the sceptre does not make the king.”
― Jose Saramago, Blindness

“...you have to leave the island in order to see the island, that we can't see ourselves unless we become free of ourselves, Unless we escape from ourselves you mean, No, that's not the same thing.”
― José Saramago, The Tale of the Unknown Island

“...sometimes we ask ourselves why happiness took so long to arrive, why it didn't come sooner, but appears suddenly, as now, when we've given up hope of it ever arriving, it's likely then that we won't know what to do, and rather than it being a question of choosing between laughter and tears, we will be filled by a secret anxiety to which we might not know how to respond at all.”
― José Saramago, The Double

“The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn't understand us, and we don't understand him.”
― José Saramago, Caim

“Se tens um coração de ferro, bom proveito.
O meu, fizeram-no de carne, e sangra todo o dia.”
― José Saramago

“O drama não é que as pessoas tenham opiniões, mas sim que as tenham sem saber do que falam.”
― José Saramago

“...for human words are like shadows, and shadows are incapable of explaining light and between shadow and light there is the opaque body from which words are born..”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“all stories are like those about the creation of the universe, no one was there, no one witnessed anything, yet everyone knows what happened.”
― José Saramago, Blindness

“We have an odd relationship with words. We learn a few when we are small, throughout our lives we collect others through education, conversation, our contact with books, and yet, in comparison, there are only a tiny number about whose meaning, sense, and denotation we would have absolutely no doubts, if one day, we were to ask ourselves seriously what they meant. Thus we affirm and deny, thus we convince and are convinced, thus we argue, deduce, and conclude, wandering fearlessly over the surface of concepts about which we only have the vaguest of ideas, and, despite the false air of confidence that we generally affect as we feel our way along the road in verbal darkness, we manage, more or less, to understand each other and even, sometimes, to find each other.”
― José Saramago, The Double

“Costuma-se dizer, dêmos tempo ao tempo, mas aquilo que sempre nos esquecemos de perguntar é se haverá tempo para dar.”
― José Saramago, The Double

“O melhor caminho para uma desculpabilização universal é chegar à conclusão de que, porque toda a gente tem culpas, ninguém é culpado.”
― José Saramago, The Double

“The time for miracles has either passed or not come yet, besides, miracles, genuine miracles, whatever people say, are not such a good idea, if it means destroying the very order of things in order to improve them.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“God does not forgive the sins He makes us commit.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“The angel told her, An honest man who committed a crime, you have no idea how many honest men have committed crimes, their crimes are countless, and contrary to popular belief these are the only crimes that cannot be forgiven.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“Morrerão milhares, Morrerão centenas de milhares, Morrerão centenas de milhares de homens e mulheres, a terra encher-se-á de gritos de dor, de uivos e roncos de agonia, o fumo dos queimados cobrirá o sol, a gordura deles rechinará sobre as brasas, o cheiro agoniará, e tudo isto será por minha culpa, Não por tua culpa, por tua causa, Pai, afasta de mim este cálice, Que tu o bebas é a condição do meu poder e da tua glória, Não quero esta glória, Mas eu quero esse poder.”
― José Saramago, O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo

“Então Jesus compreendeu que viera trazido ao engano como se leva o cordeiro ao sacrifício, que a sua vida fora traçada para morrer assim desde o princípio dos princípios, e, subindo-lhe à lembrança o rio de sangue e de sofrimento que do seu lado irá nascer e alagar toda a terra, clamou para o céu aberto onde Deus sorria, Homens, perdoai-lhe, porque ele não sabe o que fez.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“Somewhere in the infinite that He occupies, God advances and withdraws the pawns of the other games He plays, but it is too soon to worry about this one, all He need do for the present is allow things to take their natural course, apart from the occasional adjustment with the tip of His little finger to make sure some stray thought or action does not interfere with the harmony of destinies.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“O artesão no seu trabalho não deve levantar-se ante o maior doutor, podemos imaginar com que orgulho profissional começava José a instruir os seus filhos mais velhos, um após outro, à medida que chegavam à idade, primeiro Jesus, depois Tiago, depois José, depois Judas, nos segredos e tradições da arte carpinteira, atento ele, também, à antiga sentença popular que assim reza, O trabalho do menino é pouco, mas quem o desdenha é louco, foi o que veio a chamar-se trabalho infantil.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“...the church I mentioned will be established, but its foundation, in order to be truly solid, will be dug in flesh, its walls made from the cement of renunciation, tears, agony, anguish, every conceivable form of death.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“The instant is gone, time has carried us into the realm of memory, it was like this, no, it was not, and everything becomes what we choose to invent.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“By the altar, which is made of massive slabs of stone untouched by tools since hewn from the quarry and set up in this vast edifice, a barefooted priest wearing a linen tunic waits for the Levite to hand over the turtledoves. He takes the first one, carries it to a comer of the altar, and with a single blow knocks the head from its body. [...] Joseph has nothing more to accomplish here, he must withdraw, collect his wife and child, and return home. Mary is pure once more, not in the strict sense of the word, because purity is something to which most human beings, and above all women, can scarcely hope to aspire.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“But why sacrifice Your own son’s life for so little, surely all You have to do is send a prophet. The time when people listened to prophets has passed, nowadays one must administer stronger medicine, shock treatment, to touch men’s hearts and stir their feelings. Such as a son of God hanging from a cross. Yes, why not.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“Entonces el Diablo dijo, Es necesario ser Dios para que le guste tanto la sangre.”
― José Saramago, El Evangelio Según Jesucristo

“Only the donkey knows how weary it feels, all God cares about are humans, and not all humans, because some of them live like donkeys or worse, and God makes no effort to help them.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“I know nothing about God, except that His pleasure is as terrifying as His displeasure.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“he called out to the open sky, where God could be seen smiling, Men, forgive Him, for He knows not what He has done.”
― José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language