Quotes from Machado de Assis

A leitora, que é minha amiga e abriu este livro com o fim de descansar da cavatina de ontem para a valsa de hoje, quer fechá-lo às pressas, ao ver que beiramos um abismo. Não faça isso, querida; eu mudo de rumo.

come piante novelle, Rinovellate di novelle fronde.

I saw everything that was passing before me—torments and delights—from that thing called glory to the other one called misery, and I saw love multiplying misery and I saw misery intensifying weakness.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

Que mulher será essa, perguntou a si mesmo, tão bela que mete medo, tão fantasiosa que causa lástima? 

Contadas todas as horas de agonia do mundo, quantos séculos farão? Desses terão sido tenebrosos alguns, outros melancólicos, muitos desesperados, raros enfadonhos. Enfim, a morte chega, por muito que se demore, e arranca a pessoa ao pranto ou ao silêncio

You cannot deny me the fact," he said; "that the donor's pleasure is always greater than that of the beneficiary.

What is important is the general description of the domestic milieu and that has been shown here—vulgarity of character, love of gaudy appearance and clamor, a slackness of will, the rule of whim, and more. Out of that earth and that manure this flower was born.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

A onça mata o novilho porque o raciocínio da onça é que ela deve viver, e se o novilho é tenro tanto melhor: eis o estatuto universal.

Não é a ocasião que faz o ladrão... A ocasião faz o furto; o ladrão nasce feito.

The poor thing was suffering cruelly because cancer is indifferent to a person's virtues.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

Não nos dispersaremos. Se quereis os nossos cadáveres, podeis tomá-los; mas só os cadáveres; não levareis a nossa honra, o nosso crédito, os nossos direitos, e com eles a salvação de Itaguaí.

She was pretty, fresh, she came from the hands of nature full of that sorcery, uncertain and eternal, that an individual passes to another individual for the secret ends of creation.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

the sole, general, complete expression was that of selfish impassivity, that of eternal deafness, that of a rigid will.

The Christian paradise is a worthy emulation of the Muslim paradise; and as to Buddha's nirvana it is only a conceit of paralytics.

Then I pondered the fact that tight boots are one of the best bits of good fortune on earth, because by making one's feet hurt they give occasion to the pleasure of taking them off. Punish your feet, wretch, then unpunish them and there you have cheap happiness, at the mercy of shoemakers and worthy of Epicurus.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

The next minute is strong, joyful, it presumes to bring in eternity, and brings death, and perishes like the last one, but time subsists.

There was no Christian resignation or philosophical acceptance in him. It seemed that misery had calloused his soul to the point of taking away the feeling of the mud.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

A ferocidade, Sr. Soares, é o grotesco a sério.

If it hadn't been for our love affair, most likely Dona Placida would have ended up like so many other human creatures, from which it can be deduced that vice many times is manure for virtue. And that doesn't prevent virtue from being a fragrant and healthy bloom. My conscience agreed and I went to open the door for Virgilia.

O medo? O medo é um preconceito dos nervos. E um preconceito desfaz-se; basta a simples reflexão.

Her husband didn't confess the reason for his refusal to me. He told me, too, that it was because of personal business and the serious, convinced face with which I listened to him did honor to human hypocrisy.'' The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas- Machado de Asis

He died shortly afterwards, at my house, swearing and always repeating that pain was an illusion, and that Pangloss, the slandered Pangloss, was not as foolish as Voltaire supposed.

Ah! trapeze of my sins, trapeze of abstruse conceptions

porque o adjetivo é a alma do idioma, a sua porção idealista e metafísica. O substantivo é a realidade nua e crua, é o naturalismo do vocabulário.