“She wasn’t crying because of the life she led: because, never having led any other, she’d accepted that with her that was just the way things were. But I also think she was crying because, through the music, she might have guessed there were other ways of feeling,”
― The Hour of the Star
― The Hour of the Star
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
―
―
“Things were somehow so good that they were in danger of becoming very bad because what is fully mature is very close to rotting”
― A Hora da Estrela
― A Hora da Estrela
“Nothing is more curious and awkward than the relationship of two people who only know each other with their eyes — who meet and observe each other daily, even hourly and who keep up the impression of disinterest either because of morals or because of a mental abnormality. Between them there is listlessness and pent-up curiosity, the hysteria of an unsatisfied, unnaturally suppressed need for communion and also a kind of tense respect. Because man loves and honors man as long as he is not able to judge him, and desire is a product of lacking knowledge.”
― Death in Venice and Other Tales
― Death in Venice and Other Tales
“The mystery of human destiny is that we are fated, but that we have the freedom to fulfill or not fulfill our fate: realization of our fated destiny depends on us. While inhuman beings like the cockroach realize the entire cycle without going astray because they make no choices.”
― The Passion According to G.H.
― The Passion According to G.H.
Leire’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Leire’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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