Quotes from Romain Gary

I am very old,' he said gravely. He added, as a matter of course: 'I'm glad to die in Africa.' 'And why?' 'Because this is where mankind began. The cradle of humanity is in Nyasaland. It's been pretty well proved.' 'Odd reason.' 'One dies better at home.' 'Yet another one, I thought, who's trying to find a home on earth.

Ta?iau tai bergždžias darbas, ir kai vadiniesi Mikelandželu, Goja, Mocartu, Tolstojumi, Dostojevskiu ar Malro, numiršti negal?damas atsikratyti jausmo, jog kurpei bakal?jos gaminius.

Mintis tuojau pat vykti ? Berlyn?, per pa?ius karš?ius, aišku, tre?ia klase, kad nužudy?iau Hitler?, ir visi su tuo susij? pasiruošimai, nerv? ?tampa bei nuovargis man?s visai nežav?jo. <...> Bemeilijau nužudyti fiurer? spal?, prasid?jus mokslo metams.

I aimed as well as I could.' 'So as not to kill?' ''You never teach a man anything by killing him. On the contrary, you make him forget everything.

At the darkest moments of the war, in the thick of the battle, I always faced peril with a feeling of invincibility. Nothing could happen to me because I was her happy ending.

Duygularda korkunç bir ölümlülük var.

Kartais man atrodo, kad gyvenu jau tik iš mandagumo, ir jeigu dar leidžiu plakti savo širdžiai, tai tik tod?l, kad visada m?gau gyv?nus.

Yaln?z oldu?um zamanlar ancak ikiye kadar sayabilirim.

Ben o kendi can?na k?yanlar?n türünden bir kiÅŸi deÄŸilim, öyle durup dururken ve ölüm bir baÅŸka yerde meÅŸgulken; ilginç deÄŸildim, bir toplu k?y?m ve bir sigara söz konusu deÄŸildi.

Biz insanlar, hem de nice bir zamandan beri mutsuz bir çocukluk içindeyiz.

Je n'avais encore jamais vu un sourire aussi immuable et je me demandais si elle l'enlevait pour dormir.

Les gens tiennent à la vie plus qu'à n'importe quoi, c'est même marrant quand on pense à toutes les belles choses qu'il y a dans le monde.

Aš jau seniai nebesileidžiu apkvailinamas savo ?kv?pimo, ir jei vis dar svajoju paversti pasaul? laimingu sodu, tai dabar jau žinau, kad darau tai ne iš meil?s žmon?ms, o iš meil?s sodams.

La vérité, c'est qu'il y a une quantité incroyable de gouttes qui ne font pas déborder le vase. C'est fait pour ça.

Il reste enfin l'explication la plus simple et la plus vraisemblable, c'est que ma mère aimait la France sans raison aucune, comme chaque fois que l'on aime vraiment.

Madame Rosa dit que la vie peut être très belle mais qu'on ne l'a pas encore vraiment trouvée et qu'en attendant il faut bien vivre.

Si on ne pouvait pas acheter de l'amour avec de l'argent, l'amour perdrait beaucoup de sa valeur et l'argent aussi.

the most sacred right of a person is to refuse o be manipulated, handled, cheated, and then kicked in the ass---.

She would bring him back to us as docile as a sheep. 'Women,' I concluded rather bitterly, 'have at their command certain means of persuasion which the best- organized police forces do not possess.

You see, deep in their hearts they're convinced that a colonization that doesn't end in a seditious movement and massacres is not a successful colonization. Perhaps they're right, in a way.

misanthropy, hatred of mankind, is the order of the day.

The inhumanity of it is what makes Nazism so horrible—that's what people always say. Sure. But there's no denying the obvious: part of being human is the inhumanity of it. As long as we refuse to admit that inhumanity is completely human, we'll just be telling ourselves pious lies.

After all, when no name springs spontaneously to mind, when you have to rummage in your address book for someone to invite, it is always best to give up trying, if only out of regard for the very concept of friendship.

I experienced so intense a moment of despair, frustration and rebelliousness that irony, my most trusted weapon of defense, became instead another scalpel for probing my own wounds.