Olesja > Olesja's Quotes

“I have to lie, if I don't want to take madmen seriously and become a madman myself”
― Milan Kundera, Laughable Loves

“Our words, our actions must constantly set the stage for the life we wish to lead.”
― Marlo Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under

“There is no morality in war', they said, 'but cannibals never killed more in one day that they could eat. In your wars, thousands are killed in a few minutes. Perhaps it might be worth suggesting to you leaders that both parties in your war agree to five minutes of combat. Then let all the parents come to the battlefield and collect the pieces and parts of their children, take them home and mourn and bury them. After that is over, another five minutes of battle might or might not be agreed upon. It is difficult to make sense out of senselessness.”
― Marlo Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
― C.S. Lewis

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Plato

“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories

“You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories

“Of many magics, one is watching a beloved sleep: free of eyes and awareness, you for a sweet moment hold the heart of him; helpless, he is then all, and however irrationally, you have trusted him to be, man-pure, child-tender. ”
― Truman Capote, Summer Crossing

“Svećenik je mirne savjesti radio sve ono što je radio, jer je od djetinjstva bio odgojen u tom da je ovo jedina prava vjera u koju su vjerovali svi sveti ljudi koji su nekad živjeli, a sada vjeruju duhovne i svjetovne starješine. Nije on vjerovao u to da je od kruha postalo tijelo, da je duši na korist kad on izgovara mnogo riječi ili da je zaista pojeo komadićak boga – u to se ne može vjerovati – nego je vjerovao u to da treba vjerovati u tu vjeru. A glavno, u toj ga je vjeri učvršćivalo što je za vršenje službe u toj vjeri dobivao već osamnaest godina dohotke od kojih je izdržavao svoju obitelj, sina u gimnaziji, kćer u nižoj duhovnoj gimnaziji. Tako je isto vjerovao i pojac, i još tvrđe, jer je sasvim zaboravio suštinu dogmi te vjere, a samo je znao da za toplu vodu, za pomen, za časove, za običnu molitvu i za molitvu s akafistom, za sve ima određena cijena koju pravi kršćani drage volje plaćaju i zato je izvikivao svoje “pomilos, pomilos“ i pjevao i čitao što je određeno s takvim mirnim uvjerenjem kako je potrebno onda kad ljudi prodaju drva, brašno, krumpir. A upravitelj tamnice i nadglednici – ako i nisu nikad znali ni pronicali u ono o čemu se sastoje dogme te vere i što je značilo sve ono što se izvršavalo u crkvi – vjerovali su da svakako treba vjerovati u tu vjeru, je viša vlast i sam car vjeruju u nju. Osim toga su, doduše mutno (nikako ne bi znali razjasniti kako to biva), osjećali da ta vjera opravdava njihovu okrutnu službu.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“Though men in their hundreds of thousands had tried their hardest to disfigure that little corner of the earth where they had crowded themselves together, paving the ground with stones so that nothing could grow, weeding out every blade of vegetation, filling the air with the fumes of coal and gas, cutting down trees and driving away every beast and every bird -- spring, however, was still spring, even in the town. The sun shone warm, the grass, wherever it had not been scraped away, revived and showed green not only on the narrow strips of lawn on the boulevards but between the paving-stones as well, and the birches, the poplars and the wild cherry-trees were unfolding their sticky, fragrant leaves, and the swelling buds were bursting on the lime trees; the jackdaws, the sparrows and the pigeons were cheerfully getting their nests ready for the spring, and the flies, warmed by the sunshine, buzzed gaily along the walls. All were happy -- plants, birds, insects and children. But grown-up people -- adult men and women -- never left off cheating and tormenting themselves and one another. It was not this spring morning which they considered sacred and important, not the beauty of God's world, given to all creatures to enjoy -- a beauty which inclines the heart to peace, to harmony and to love. No, what they considered sacred and important were their own devices for wielding power over each other.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“Ma koliko nastojali ljudi, kad ih se nekoliko stotina tisuća skupi na jednom, nevelikom mjestu, da iznakaze tu zemlju na kojoj se stišću; ma kako sabijali kamenje u zemlju da ne bi ništa raslo na njoj; ma kako plijevili svaku travku što probije; ma kako dimili kamenim ugljenom i petrolejem; ma kako obrezivali drveće i ma kako istjerivali sve životinje i ptice – proljeće je bilo proljeće čak i u gradu.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“Ali ljudi – veliki, odrasli ljudi – nisu prestajali da varaju i muče sami sebe i jedan drugoga. Ljudi su držali da nije sveto i važno to proljetno jutro, ni ta krasota svijeta božjega stvorena za dobro svim bićima – krasota koja pozivlje za mir, slogu i ljubav – nego je sveto i važno ono što su izmislili oni sami da bi vladali jedan nad drugim”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“Jedna od najobičnijih i najraširenijih praznovjerica je ta da svaki čovjek ima jedino svoja određena svojstva, da je čovjek dobar, zao, glup, energičan, apatičan itd. Ljudi nisu takvi. Možemo kazati o čovjeku da je češće dobar nego zao, češće pametan nego glup, češće energičan nego apatičan, i obratno; ali će biti neistina ako reknemo o kojem čovjeku da je dobar ili pametan, a o drugom da je zao ili glup. A mi uvijek tako dijelimo ljude. I to nije istina. Ljudi su kao rijeke: voda je u svima jednaka i svuda ista, ali svaka je rijeka sad uska, sad brza, sad široka, sad tiha, sad čista, sad hladna, sad mutna, sad topla. Tako i ljudi. Svaki čovjek nosi u sebi začetke svih ljudskih svojstava te ponekad ispoljava jedne, ponekad druge, i često nije nikako nalik na sebe, a ipak ostaje vazda onaj koji jest.”
― Tolstoy Leo Nikoleyevich, Resurrection

“Ružan čin možeš da ne ponoviš i možeš da se pokaješ zbog njega, ali ružne misli rađaju isključivo ružne čini. Ružan čin samo utire put ružnim činima, a ružne misli nezadrživo vuku tim putem.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“Odurna je životinjska priroda zvjeri u čovjeku, ali kad je ona u čistom obliku, onda je ti s visine svog duševnog života vidiš i prezireš, pa ili pao, ili se održao - ti ostaješ ono što si bio; ali kad se ta ista životinja krije pod tobože estetskim, poetskim ovojem i iziskuje da joj se pokloniš, onda sam nestaješ u njoj i, obožavajući životinju, ne razlikuješ više dobro od zla. Onda je to užasno.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

“...people don't respect the morning. An alarm clock violently wakes them up, shatters their sleep like the blow of an ax, and they immediately surrender themselves to deadly haste. Can you tell me what kind of day can follow a beginning of such violence? What happens to people whose alarm clock daily gives them a small electric shock? Each day they become more used to violence and less used to pleasure.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Pravda, u stvari, i ne treba da nas previše zanima. Pravda nije ljudska stvar. Postoji pravda slijepih i krutih zakona, a osim nje možda i neka viša pravda, ali tu ja ne razumijem. Uvijek mi se činilo da na ovom svijetu živim izvan pravde. Pravda me se ne tiče. Pravda je nešto izvan mene i iznad mene. Kako god se uzme, nešto neljudsko. Nikad neću surađivati s tom odvratnom silom.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Staru gospodu lako je prepoznati po tome što se hvale pretrpljenim patnjama i prave od njih muzej u koji pozivaju svoje goste.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Ljubomora ispunjava misli potpunije nego najstrastveniji intelektualni rad. U mislima ne ostaje niti jedan slobodan trenutak. Ljubomoran čovjek ne zna što je dosada.
...
Ljubomora je kao strašna zubobolja. Ne dopušta čoveku da radi, ni da sjedi. Tjera ga da hoda, tamo-amo, tamo-amo.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Svijetla kosa i tamna kosa, to su dva pola ljudskog karaktera. Tamna kosa znači muževnost, odvažnost, otvorenost i poduzetnost, dok je svijetla kosa simbol ženstvenosti, nježnosti, bespomoćnosti i pasivnosti. Plavuša je, prema tome, dvostruka žena. Princeza mora biti plavokosa. Zato žene, da bi bile ženstvenije, boje kosu u žuto, a nikad u crno.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

“Svaka žena čeka gospodina Browna i njegovu tajanstvenu izbočinu, vjernoga onkraj groba; onda odjednom shvati da ono što čeka uopće ne postoji i da će morati prihvatiti nešto drugorazredno. Kakvo razočarenje.”
― Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans

“Da, sve otkako je čovjek prvi put digao glavu iznad ulaza u špilju da pogleda zvijezde na nebu i pomislio kako bi bilo lijepo imati jednu takvu zvijezdu samo za sebe, sanjao je o tome da drugi rade za njega i da on za to plaća što je manje moguće.”
― Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
― Groucho Marx

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
― Ray Bradbury