Quotes by Jose Saramago

About Jose Saramago:

José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom described Saramago as "the greatest living novelist" and considers him to be "a permanent part of the Western canon", while James Wood praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

doubt is the privilege of those who have lived a long time,

Jose Saramago

la culpa era de su ceguera de progenitor, la misma, (...) que nos impide ver que nuestros hijos, al fin y al cabo, son tan buenos o tan malos como los demás

Jose Saramago

Cain considers life and can find no explanation for it, there is that woman, who although clearly sick with desire is enjoying postponing the moment of surrender, which is not at all the right word, because lilith, when she does finally open her legs...

Jose Saramago

There are such moments in life, when, in order for heaven to open, it is necessary for a door to close.

Jose Saramago

Indeed, very few people are aware that in each of our fingers, located somewhere between the first phalange, the mesophalange, and the metaphalange, there is a tiny brain. The fact is that the other organ which we call the brain, the one with which w...

Jose Saramago

...we confidently say that it's not worth trying to reach any conclusions merely because we decide to stop halfway along the path that would lead us straight to them.

Jose Saramago

A person is not like a thing that you put down in one place and leave, a person moves, thinks, asks, questions, doubts, investigates, probes, and while it is true that, out of a long habit of resignation, he sooner or later ends up looking as if he h...

Jose Saramago

Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt. Some say that the main cause of this very serious difficulty lies in the fact that huma...

Jose Saramago

Não tenhamos pressa, mas não percamos tempo.

Jose Saramago

... time is a master of ceremonies who always ends up putting us in our rightful place, we advance, stop, and retreat according to his orders, our mistake lies in imagining that we can catch him out.

Jose Saramago

The worst pain ... isn't the pain you feel at the time, it's the pain you feel later on when there's nothing you can do about it, They say that time heals all wounds, But we never live long enough to test that theory ...

Jose Saramago

... that's how life should be, when one person loses heart, the other must have heart and courage enough for both.

Jose Saramago

Terás então de ler doutra maneira, Como, Não serve a mesma para todos, cada um inventa a sua, a que lhe for própria, há quem leve a vida inteira a ler sem nunca ter conseguido ir mais além da leitura, ficam pegados à página, não percebem que...

Jose Saramago

... the best way of killing a rose is to force it open when it is still only the promise of a bud.

Jose Saramago

... we are only ever pretending to ourselves, never to other people ...

Jose Saramago

... assim é que a vida deve ser, quando um desanima, o outro agarra-se às próprias tripas e faz delas coração.

Jose Saramago

Authoritarian, paralyzing, circular, occasionally elliptical stock phrases, also jocularly referred to as nuggets of wisdom, are a malignant plague, one of the very worst ever to ravage the earth.

Jose Saramago

..there are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything.

Jose Saramago

Sólo un sentido común con imaginación de poeta podría haber sido el inventor de la rueda.

Jose Saramago

Al contrario de lo que piensa el sentido común, las cosas de la voluntad nunca son simples, lo que es simple es la indecisión, la incertidumbre, la irresolución...

Jose Saramago

He could not consent to allow himself to be insulted, still less to allow himself to be treated as a rag, and, above all, to allow a thoroughly vicious man to treat him so. No quarrelling, however, no quarrelling! Possibly if some one wanted, if some...

Jose Saramago

Author Bio

  • NameJose Saramago
  • DescriptionPortuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
  • BornNovember 16, 1922
  • DiedJune 18, 2010
  • CountryPortugal
  • ProfessionJournalist; Playwright; Translator; Novelist; Poet; Chronicler; Essayist; Diarist; Literary Critic; Writer
  • WorksThe Gospel According To Jesus Christ; Blindness; Seeing; Death With Interruptions; Cain
  • AwardsNobel Prize In Literature; Camões Prize; America Award In Literature