Quotes from Romain Gary

He gave up. It was no use. She wasn't listening. He was finding himself in a situation as old as mankind itself: reason against superstition.

I should've known it," he groaned. "The moment you pick up a bare-assed stripper from the Crazy Horse, she's bound to be religious.

Je me souviens que je lui ai dit ça très franchement, il faut maigrir pour manger moins, mais c'es très dur pour une vieille femme qui est seule au monde. Elle a besoin de plus d'elle-même que les autres. Lorsqu'il n'y a personne pour vous aimer autour, ça devient de la graisse.

Žinoma, galime toli nuklysti, bet juk negali r?pintis vien savimi pa?iu, taip visai sukvail?si. Galvodamas apie Kambodž? ir panašius dalykus, mažiau galvoji apie save pat?. Kai nepakankamai galvoji apie kitus, tada per daug galvoji apie save, <...>.

He switched the gasper off quickly before it burned the toaster and the whole damn table. Too much power. Technology again. Technology was the asshole of science.

On dit que l'amour est aveugle mais avec toi, qui sait, la cécité est peut-être une façon de voir...

He felt sad, angry and sorry. It was impossible to let the people benefit fully from scientific and ideological progress without first raising the level of cultural awareness of the masses. They had to discard all the traditional molds that were still narrowing their minds.

They had spent a few years in Paris, but they had still to undergo a real education — one which no school, lycee or university could supply: they had still to undergo their education in suffering. Then they'd be ready to understand what this was all about.

Aš gul?jau ten, ži?r?jau ? j? ir pratinasi b?ti dviese. Kai tavo gyvenime nieko n?ra, taip jau išeina, kad ten susigr?d? daug žmoni?. O kai kas nors yra, tai j? kur kas mažiau.

I too have often felt the need to understand it all; but I know my limits. In my life I've done more suffering than thinking — though I believe one understands better that way.

Il n'est pas possible d'être aussi con, murmura-t-elle lorsque je lui fis part de mon intention de rejoindre la Pologne, coûte que coûte. Je ne comprends même pas qu'on ne t'ait pas pris dans l'armée, con comme tu es.

Credeva nella sventura perché era solo. Per la speranza bisogna essere in due. Tutte le leggi dei grandi numeri cominciano con questa certezza.

Ça veut mourir d'amour, dit-elle. Alors, tu devrais te dépêcher. Parce que ça va se mettre à mourir de tous les côtés, et ça ne va pas être d'amour, crois-moi.

Let's say that it's a good idea to see these things as they are, in order to gain some necessary detachment... — He gave a sad little smile. — I know, I know - the hardest peace treaties are the ones one has to conclude with oneself.

Rien ne vaut la peine d'être vécu qui n'est pas d'abord une oeuvre d'imagination, ou alors la mer ne serait plus que de l'eau salée...

Non so se sia un uccello, una farfalla o una lucertola, perché la fantasia infantile si era guardata bene dal privarlo di tutte le sue possibilità.

Une idée était venue depuis longtemps se loger dans mon esprit dont j'ai eu beaucoup de mal à me débarrasser par la suite et peut-être ne m'en suis-je jamais débarrassé entièrement. Les nazis étaient humains. Et ce qu'il y avait d'humain en eux, c'était leur inhumanité.

Yet the only answer to science was more science. Neither was there a lack of clever rationalizations. The ethical way out of scientists who had built the "ultimate" nuclear weapon was that it would make war impossible. The Cercle Érasme had a similar purpose in mind: They were set on taking the power-mad giants even farther in the same direction.

Marc, are there moments when I'm making you unhappy? Are there? That's the real test. If I do, then you truly love me." "Now, that's strange logic." "It isn't either. Any good lay can make a man happy. You've had hundreds of women. How many of them had made you unhappy?" "None." "Then you've never loved before.

I wondered — and I finally reached the conclusion that the Lebanese was a man who was in love with life, and that his carefree, enormous laugh— head thrown back, eyes closed in a grimace of mirth — celebrated a perfect, a total understanding between the two, an agreement which nothing ever managed to disturb: happiness, in fact. A beautiful affair: life and Habib were inseparable.

Well, anyhow, he thought, the French say that bad temper and stubbornness make one live longer, so I may still be around for a while...

and in fifteen minutes I knew enough about De Vries's sporting exploits to land him with Hell's own fine — which I did, on my return to Fort Lamy. I don't think this bothered him much: there are people who are always ready to pay the necessary price for satisfying the intimate urges of their soul, as you must know. Father.

When the first atomic bomb was exploded successfully, Oppenheimer and Fermi flashed the code word: Baby satisfactorily born. A most befitting yell o triumph for the coming of age of technological civilization and for the death of culture. Since then hundreds of thousands of babies were satisfactorily born with defective genes or died of leukemia brought on by radiation. Compulsive creation, genius, what the hell do you want, clap censorship on science?

An unbearable reality, combined with the impossibility to change it, tends to lead to abstractions for abstraction's sake, and unreality becomes more realistic than reality itself, more true, more convincing, simply because it looks at you with the eyes of justice.