Frederico

“Eu conheci esse pedaço do belo Belorizonte, nele padeci, esperei, amei, tive dores-de-corno augustas, discuti e neguei. Conhecia todo mundo. Cada pedra nas calçadas, cada tijolo nas sargetas, seus bueiros, os postes, as ávores. Distinguia seus odores e suas cores de todas as horas. Seu sol, sua chuva, seus calores e seu frio. Ali vivi dos meus dezessete aos meus vinte e quatro anos. Vinte anos nos anos Vinte. Sete anos que valeram pelos que tinha vivido antes e que viveria depois. Hoje, aqueles sete anos, eles só, existem na minha memória.”
― Pedro Nava, Beira-mar

“as he noticed the feeble ticking of his watch, he suddenly realized that he had been escaping all his life, that life had been a constant escape, escape from meaninglessness into music, from music to guilt, from guilt and self-punishment into pure ratiocination, and finally escape from that too, that it was retreat after retreat, as if his guardian angel had, in his own peculiar fashion, been steering him to the antithesis of retreat, to an almost simple-minded acceptance of things as they were, at which point he understood that there was nothing to be understood, that if there was reason in the world it far transcended his own, and that therefore it was enough to notice and observe that which he actually possessed.”
― László Krasznahorkai, The Melancholy of Resistance

“It would be better for you to turn around and go into the thick grasses, there where one of those strange grassy islets in the riverbed will completely cover you, it would be better if you do this for once and for all, because if you come back tomorrow, or after tomorrow, there will be no one at all to understand, no one to look, not even a single one among all your natural enemies that will be able to see who you really are; it would be better for you to go away this very evening when twilight begins to fall, it would be better for you to retreat with the others, if night begins to descend, and you should not come back if tomorrow, or after tomorrow, dawn breaks, because for you it will be much better for there to be no tomorrow and no day after tomorrow; so hide away now in the grass, sink down, fall onto your side, let your eyes slowly close, and die, for there is no point in the sublimity that you bear, die at midnight in the grass, sink down and fall, and let it be like that — breathe your last.”
― László Krasznahorkai, Seiobo There Below

“While on the one hand," he said, "our most prominent scientists, the inexhaustible heroes of this perennial confusion, have finally and somewhat unfortunately extricated themselves from the metaphor of godhead, they have immediately fallen into the trap of regarding this oppressive history as some kind of triumphant march, a supernatural progress following, what they call, the victory of 'will and intellect', and though, as you know, I am no longer capable of being the least surprised by this, I must confess to you I still cannot understand why it should be the cause of such universal celebration for them that we have climbed out of the trees. Do they think it's good like this? I find nothing amusing in it. Furthermore it doesn't fit us properly: you only have to consider how long, even after thousands of years of practice, we can keep going on two legs. Half a day, my dear friend, and we shouldn't forget it.”
― László Krasznahorkai, The Melancholy of Resistance