Quotes from Michel Houellebecq

En su lugar, una víbora ya se habría suicidado.

Cependant, l'animal le plus faible est en général en mesure d'éviter le combat par l'adoption d'une posture de soumission (accroupissement, présentation de l'anus).

When Bruno came back with a thick folder in his hand, Paul was standing in the small parlor, busy examining an animal sculpture standing on a windowsill. The animal, whose musculature was minutely reproduced, head turned back. It seemed worried, maybe it had heard something behind it, sensed the presence of a predator. It must be a goat, or maybe a deer or a hind, he didn't know much about animals.

Innostukseni pilluihin ei ole heikentynyt, koen sen yhdeksi viimeisiä tunnistettavia inhimillisiä piirteitäni, muista en ole niinkään varma.

he realised that belief in the notions of reasons and free will, which are the natural foundations of democracy, probably resulted from a confusion between the concepts of freedom and unpredictability. The turbulence of a river flowing around the supporting pillar of a bridge is structurally unpredictable, but no one would think to describe it as being free.

Or maybe I was just hungry. I'd forgotten to eat the day before, and possibly what I should do was go back to my hotel and sit down to a few duck's legs instead of falling down between the pews in an attack of mystical hypoglycemia.

La chispa de curiosidad que subsistía en mi forma de mirar el mundo se apagaría pronto y sería como las piedras, con el añadido de un vago sufrimiento. Mi carrera no había sido un fracaso, al menos en términos comerciales: si agredes al mundo con suficiente violencia, él te acaba escupiendo su cochina pasta; pero nunca, nunca te devuelve la alegría.

Me considero un tipo normal. Bueno, puede que no exactamente, pero ¿Quién lo es exactamente? Digamos que soy normal al 80%.

nic nas nie koi równie Å'atwo jak Å›wiadomo?? innych ni? nasze dramatów, które nam zostaÅ'y oszczÄ™dzone

It will all be much easier for the conservatives, who are in even worse shape, and who never cared about education—they hardly even know what education is.

In revolutionary times, those who accord themselves, with an extraordinary arrogance, the facile credit for having inflamed anarchy in their contemporaries fail to recognize that what appears to be a sad triumph is in fact due to a spontaneous disposition, determined by the social situation as a whole. —AUGUSTE COMTE, Cours de philosophie positive, Leçon 48

The French Revolution, the republic, the motherland Ã¢â'¬Â¦ yes, all that paved the way for something, something that lasted a little more than a century. The Christian Middle Ages lasted a millennium and more.

Il n'y a pas beaucoup à gagner dans ce monde : le

Notre malheur n'atteint son plus haut point que lorsque a été envisagée, suffisamment proche, la possibilité pratique du bonheur.

At times, too, I've had the impression that I'd manage to feel quite at home in a life of vacuity. That the relatively painless boredom would enable me to go on making the usual gestures of life. Another big mistake. Prolonged boredom is not tenable as a position: sooner or later it is transformed into feelings that are acutely more painful, of true pain; this is precisely what's happening to me.

the characters aren't the only ones stranded in their country retreat: Huysmans is stranded there, too. It would almost seem that he was trying to go back to Naturalism—the sordid Naturalism of the countryside, where the peasants turn out to be more abject and greedy even than Parisians—if not for the dream sequences, which interrupt and ultimately hobble the story, and make it so impossible to classify.

La traditionnelle lucidité des dépressifs, souvent décrite comme un désinvestissement radical à l'égard des préoccupations humaines, se manifeste en tout premier lieu par un manque d'intérêt pour les questions effectivement peu intéressantes. Ainsi peut-on, à la rigueur, imaginer un dépressif amoureux, tandis qu'un dépressif patriote paraît franchement inconcevable.

La tendresse est antérieure à la séduction, c'est pourquoi il est si difficile de désespérer.

Îmi pl?ceau cataloagele turistice, caracterul lor abstract, felul lor de a reduce locurile lumii la un È™ir de tarife È™i fericiri posibile: apreciam în special sistemul de notare cu steluÈ›e, indicând intensitatea fericirii la care erai îndrept??it s? speri.

Má»™t sáng, kho?ng m??i má»™t gi?, c?u n?m dài trên bãi c?, gi?a nh?ng cây c?i vô tình. C?u ng?c nhiên th?y mình Ä'au kh? ??n th?.

Man sollte keinen Sinn in Dingen suchen, die keinen haben", womit er sich, ohne sich dessen wirklich bewusst zu sein, die Schlussfolgerung von Wittgensteins Tractatus zu eigen machte: "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.

El espacio viene, se acerca y pretende devorarme. Hay un ruidito en el centro de la habitación. Los fantasmas están ahí, son el espacio, me rodean. Se alimentan de los ojos reventados de los hombres.

La conciencia de un determinismo integral era sin duda lo que más claramente nos diferenciaba de nuestros antepasados humanos. Como ellos, no éramos sino máquinas pensantes; pero a diferencia de ellos, teníamos conciencia de ser tan sólo máquinas.

if a civil war should break out in France, it would take a while to reach the southwest. I knew next to nothing about the southwest, really, only that it was a region where they ate duck confit, and duck confit struck me as incompatible with civil war.