Quotes About Stagnation

Se fizesse aquilo olhando no espelho, seria como assistir a outra pessoa, num livro ou numa peça. Mas a pessoa no espelho estava paralisada e era estúpida demais para fazer qualquer coisa.

I just sat there with the whole summer turning sour in my mouth.

If Mrs. Guinea had given me a ticket to Europe, or a round-the-world cruise, it wouldn't have made one scrap of difference to me, because whenever I sat--on the deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok-- I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.

Po letech je potkávám na silnici - slova vyprahlá a bez jezdc?, neúnavný klapot kopyt. Zatímco ze dna t?nÄ› životu vládnou utkvÄ›lé hvÄ›zdy.

If Mrs. Guinea had given me a ticket to Europe, or a round-the-world cruise, it wouldn't have made one scrap of difference to me, because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.

Sabía que debía estarle agradecida a la señora Guinea, sólo que no podía sentir nada. Si la señora Guinea me hubiera dado un pasaje a Europa, o un viaje alrededor del mundo, no hubiera habido la menor diferencia para mí, porque donde quiera que estuviera sentada -en la cubierta de un barco o en la terraza de un café en París o en Bangkok- estaría sentada bajo la misma campana de cristal, agitándome en mi propio aire viciado.

If Mrs. Guinea had given me a ticket to Europe, or a round-the-world cruise, it wouldn't have made one scrap of difference to me, because wherever I sat--on the deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok--I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.

under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air

è come sollevara una campana di vetro posta sopra una comunità dove tutto funziona come un meccanismo oliato, e vedere i minuscoli, indaffarati abitanti arrestarsi di colpo, boccheggiare, gonfiarsi e librarsi nell'aflusso ( anzi, nel deflusso) della rarefatta atmosfera della norma: poveri esserini spaventati che agitano le braccia impotenti nell'aria indecisa. è così che ci sente a liberarsi dalla routine.

The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.

People go to the movies instead of moving.

Security is a kind of death.

When things don't change, their sameness becomes an accretion. That is why all society puts on flesh. Succumbs to the cubicles and begins to fill them.

Sometimes when the year grinds to its end and the new term begins I feel I'm living the life of a fruit fly - the endless ephemeral cycle, each new semester a "fresh start" that leads to the same moribund conclusions.

For me, habit is just a synonym for death.

El absurdo es que no parezca un absurdo. El absurdo es que salgas por la mañana a la puerta y encuentres la botella de leche en el umbral y te quedes tan tranquilo porque ayer te pasó lo mismo y mañana te volverá a pasar. Es ese estancamiento, ese así sea, esa sospechosa carencia de excepciones...

Inercia. Todo dura siempre un poco más de lo que debería.

La tarea de ablandar el ladrillo todos los días, la tarea de abrirse paso en la masa pegajosa que se proclama mundo, cada mañana topar con el paralelepípedo de nombre repugnante, con la satisfacción perruna de que todo esté en su sitio, la misma mujer al lado, los mismos zapatos, el mismo sabor de la misma pasta dentífrica, la misma tristeza de las casas de enfrente, del sucio tablero de ventanas de tiempo con su letrero «Hotel de Belgique».

One thing that worried me was how writers get categorized and so they end up having to write the same kind of book again and again. That is fine if it is what you want to do, but I would rather be locked in the trunk of my car with a weasel than write the same book every three years until I die.

Inertia is so easy—don't fix what's not broken. Leave well enough alone. So we end up accepting what is broken, mistaking complaining for action, procrastinating for deliberation.

Nunca mejora su estado quien muda solamente de lugar, y no de vida y costumbres.

Comfort can be a dangerous thing. You stick around home all the time where it's safe and nothing ever changes, and before you know it, you get set in your ways and you quit learning, you quit changing, you don't grow anymore.

In fact you have been as if your arms were tied, without knowing what to do. It appears that you are no better than a wooden image." —The Emperor telling Lin Zexu why he was firing him

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.