Patrick Suskind Quotes

“He was so full of disgust, disgust at the world and at himself, that he could not weep.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Until now he had thought that it was the world in general he had wanted to squirm away from. But it was not the world, it was the people in it.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Whatever the art or whatever the craft - and make a note of this before you go - talent means next to nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Odours have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions or will. The persuasive power of an odour cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Whenever he met him or saw him sitting somewhere - he felt only the sentiment that is generally termed tolerance: a very lukewarm emotional stew of disgust, contempt, and sympathy.”
― Patrick Süskind, The Pigeon

“For he was not fond of events, and hated outright those that rattled his inner equilibrium and made a muddle of the external arrangements of life.”
― Patrick Süskind, The Pigeon

“He preferred not to meddle with such problems, they were too discomfiting for him and would only land him in the most agonizing insecurity and disquiet, whereas to make use of one's reason one truly needed both security and quiet.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Besides which, he was a man who did not let his decisions be made for him by other people, not by a crowd thrown into panic, and certainly not by some anonymous piece of criminal trash.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“These Diderots and d'Alemberts and Voltaires and Rousseaus or whatever names these scribblers have - there are even clerics among them and gentleman of noble birth! - they've finally managed to infect the whole society with their perfidious fidgets, with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world, in short, with the boundless chaos that reigns inside their own heads!”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“He was in very truth his own God, and a more splendid God than the God that stank of incense and was quartered in churches.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer