Quotes from Pascal Bruckner

Frustration is a bad experience. What you have to stress is the satisfaction.

Ultimately, 'how's it going?' is the most futile and the most profound of questions. To answer it precisely, one would have to make a scrupulous inventory of one's psyche, considering each aspect in detail. No matter: we have to say 'fine' out of politeness and civility and change the subject, or else ruminate the question during our whole lives and reserve our reply for afterward.

ImperfecÅ£iunea este mult mai seduc?toare decât plicticoasa regulariate. O figur? emoÅ£ionant? este o asamblare de defecte armonios repartizate.

By the duty to be happy, I thus refer to the ideology... that urges us to evaluate everything in terms of pleasure and displeasure...on the one hand, we have to make the most of our lives; on the other, we have to be sorry and punish ourselves if we don't succeed in doing so. This is a perversion of a very beautiful idea: that everyone has a right to control his own destiny and to improve his life.

A iubi înseamn? s?-i dau celuilalt, cu propriul meu consim??mânt, o putere infinit? asupra mea. Cum de putusem contribui la propria mea servitute?

Prefer oamenilor c?rÅ£ile: sunt deja scrise, le deschizi, le închizi dup? voie. O fiin?? omeneasc?, nu ÅŸtii niciodat? de unde s-o apuci, nu poÅ£i s-o rânduieÅŸti sau s-o deplasezi dup? cum Å£i-e cheful.

Totusi, destul de iute simplicitatea actului sexual m-a plictisit; in cele mai rele excese percepeam monotonie si patos mult. Oricat de puternica era desfatarea, ea nu era niciodata destul de puternica. Mi-am dat seama atunci ca trupul e limitat, spre deosebire de gand.

Sunt victorii care duc la un impas, tot aÅŸa cum sunt înfrângeri care deschid c?i noi.

Today, luxury resides in everything that is becoming rare: communion with nature, silence, meditation, slowness rediscovered, the pleasure of living out of step with others, studious idleness, the enjoyment of the major works of the mind - these are all privileges that cannot be bought because they are literally priceless.

În fond, n-ai fost niciodat? decât o creaÈ›ie a minÈ›ii mele, un idol pe care-l susÈ›ineam cu braÈ›ele; vedeam numai idolul, nu È™i efortul braÈ›elor mele.

Pe cine sa acuzi, vai, daca nu "pe noi doi si ce amaraciune e mai mare decât sa-l ucizi pe cel pe care-l adori prin simplul fapt de a fi împreuna?

Nu râde de autobuz: nu exist? un loc de elecÅ£iune pentru o dragoste la prim a vedere. Chiar ÅŸi o cutie pe roÅ£i poate deveni anticamera paradisului atunci când crezi în hazard.

You construct your happiness as you construct a house and you have to work on it. It is a daily job.

You're happy when you leave your concerns to the side and when you experience a pure moment of joy with friends.

The obsession with security at any price petrifies us, and we increase our fear by trying to eliminate risk. That is what is ridiculous about the great outcries in the media: we wake up in order to demand more passivity, a better protected life. The challenge is not only to decrease the amount of space the media devote to hazards but also to increase our ability to resist misfortunes. To augment our endurance rather than our panic.

Turistii se adunau de acum in batalioane organizate inaintea catedralei, mitraliindu-I fatada cu o docilitate unaninma. In sort sau in bermude atacau plini de hotarare locurile sfinte, cu degetul pe tragaciul camerei de luat vederi, gata sa-l surprinda pe Dumnezeu in flagrant delict. Turistul nu crede in lucruri decat dupa ce le-a transfigurat in poze.

Love has triumphed over marriage but now it is destroying it from inside

?i vai, biet plugar pe p?mânturile ei roz È™i roditoare, nu m? în?lÈ›am niciodat? la nivelul delirului ei.

Some people's happiness is always other people's kitsch.

Victims becoming torturers is such a classic historical pattern that we could formulate, regarding any revolution whatever, this iron law : combat oppression; beware of the oppressed.

Seeking to eliminate pain nonetheless puts it at the heart of the system. As a result, today we suffer from not wanting to suffer just as one can make oneself ill by trying to be perfectly healthy. Furthermore, we now tell ourselves a strange fable about a society completely devoted to hedonism, and for which everything becomes an irritation, a torture. Unhappiness is not only unhappiness; it is, worse yet, a failure to be happy.

O tempo, esse grande ladrão, rouba continuamente; mas uma coisa é ser despojado com magnificência e envelhecer com a consciência de uma existência plena e rica, outra é ser roído miseravelmente hora após hora por coisas que de todo não conhecemos. O inferno dos contemporâneos chama-se monotonia. O paraíso que procuram a plenitude. Existem aqueles que viveram e aqueles que duraram.

We are not going to confine women to the home, cover their heads, lengthen their skirts, or beat up gay people, prohibit alcohol, censure film, theater, and literature, and codify tolerance in order to respect the overly sensitive whims of a few sanctimonious persons.

Sentimentul este ceva ce se poate pierde ca un ceas, epuiza încet ca un cont în banc? ÅŸi reg?si ca o p?l?rie.