Quotes from Louis-Ferdinand Celine

I'm doddering around like an old bumblebee, I'm all tangled up in the air, Ah sees it, I ain't tellin' things in the right order, what about it! You'll excuse me somewhat, kidding about my memories, digressing from rhyme to reason, jabbering away about my friends instead of showing you around!...Let's go! and let's keep going!...Let me show you around nicely...straying neither right nor left!...

N'importe quoi dans la vanité c'est mieux que rien

Ž?l tikai, ka cilv?ki nomirst t?di maitas ar tik lieliem m?lest?bas ietaup?jumiem. Tie gluži vienk?rši neizn?k lauk?. M?lest?ba ir iestr?gusi, t? paliek iekš?, t? vi?iem neko nedod. M?lest?ba vi?us nobeidz – no iekšpuses.

We are so trivial by nature that only amusements can stop us from dying for real.

I never saw Claben bawled out for his performance, his extortions, yet he was a louse, the worst vile stingy hyena when it came to usury and dishonesty! A skunk when it came to lend and lease! Never a day's, a penny's grace...the worst tyrant about extensions...he'd fleece them to zero!...he'd finish off even the most decrepit woebegone wrecks...he'd suck them beyond the bone!...and he'd insult them besides into the bargain!

When I think now of all the lunatics I knew at Baryton's, I can't help suspecting that the only true manifestations of our innermost being are war and insanity, those two absolute nightmares.

You'll never get a family to understand that a man, related to them or not, is nothing but suspended putrefaction … No family will pay bills for suspended putrefaction …" For

You can be a virgin in horror the same as in sex. How, when I left the Place Clichy, could I have imagined such horror? Who could have suspected, before getting really into the war, all the ingredients that go to make up the rotten, heroic, good-for-nothing soul of man? And there I was, caught up in a mass flight into collective murder, into the fiery furnace … Something had come up from the depths, and this is what happened.

Blessed are those who can content themselves with whorehouses! Parapine

La guerre avait brûlé les uns, réchauffé les autres, comme le feu torture ou conforte, selon qu'on est placé dedans ou devant. Faut se débrouiller voilà tout.

Old Foxy kept on talking!...He was attracting attention in the crowd!...Nobody asked to see his papers...That was the amazing thing!...The kids, the tarts, the soldier-boys ran after him, pulled at him, played tricks on him!...They came touching his dragon, pinching his robe, his behind...

I've known a good many sufferers from conviction mania … Of many different types … And in the last analysis, those who talk about justice seem to be the maddest of the lot!

Was he really insane? At a time when the world is upside down and it's thought insane to ask why you're being murdered, it obviously requires no great effort to pass for a lunatic.

Sabes que si me marcho es porque te estorbo. No soy un ser normal... soy fiel, te lo aseguro, a mi manera, atrozmente fiel, hasta reventar. Pero me agobia la regularidad de la vida. En realidad, me siento mucho más cerca de la gente cuando la dejo.

Soarele având de trecut prin prea multe lucruri, nu-i las? str?zii decât o lumin? tomnatec? însoÅ£it? de regrete ÅŸi nori.

Somos, por naturaleza, tan fútiles, que solo las distracciones pueden impedirnos de verdad morir.

Happiness on earth would be to die with and while having pleasure … The rest is nothing at all, a fear that we don't dare avow

He is a guy without collective importance. He is just an individual.

Para el pobre existen en este mundo dos grandes formas de palmarla, por la indiferencia absoluta de sus semejantes en tiempos de paz o por la pasión homicida de los mismos en tiempos de guerra.

Our trouble isn't lack of perseverance, it's that we're not on the right road that leads to an easy death. Going

Når menneskenes had ikke medfører nogen risiko, bliver deres dumhed snart overbevist, motiverne kommer ganske af sig selv.

Dos años más tarde estalla la Primera Guerra Mundial, en la que Louis-Ferdinand participa con su regimiento en las cruentas batallas de las fronteras de Flandes. En una misión para la que se había presentado voluntario es herido

Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.

Oamenii trec de la o comedie la alta. Între timp piesa nu e înc? montat?, nu-i discern contururile, rolul ce li se potriveÅŸte cel mai bine, ÅŸi-atunci stau aÅŸa, cu mâinile-n sân în faÅ£a evenimentului, cu instinctele repliate ca o umbrel?, cl?tinând din cap în ÅŸov?iala lor, reduÅŸi la a fi ei înÅŸiÅŸi, adic? nimic. Cârpe pleoÅŸtite.