Quotes About Reflection

People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.

People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.

A critique does not consist in saying that things aren't good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based... To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy.

Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.

What about you, Michel, what are you going to do here?' The response closest to the truth was probably something like 'Nothing'; but it's always difficult to explain that kind of thing to an active person.

The story of a life can be as long or as short as the teller wishes. Whether the life is tragic or enlightened, the classic gravestone inscription marking simply the dates of birth and death has, in its brevity, much to recommend it.

Refuser de faire quelque chose parce qu'on l'a déjà fait, parce qu'on a déjà vécu l'expérience, conduit rapidement à une destruction, pour soi-même comme pour les autres, de toute raison de vivre comme de tout futur possible, et vous plonge dans un ennui pesant qui finit par se transformer en une amertume atroce, accompagnée de haine et de rancoeur à l'égard de ceux qui appartiennent encore à la vie.

Tout est kitsch, si l'on veut. La musique dans son ensemble est kitsch; l'art est kitsch; la littérature elle-même est kitsch. Toute émotion est kitsch, pratiquement par définition; mais toute réflexion aussi, et même dans un sens toute action. La seule chose qui ne soit absolument pas kitsch, c'est le néant.

It was amazing, even, to think that the only thing left to people in their despair was reading.

O kadar az yaÅŸad?m ki sanki hiç ölmeyecekmiÅŸim gibi düÅŸünme eÄŸilimindeyim; insan hayat?n?n bu kadarc?k bir ÅŸeye indirgenmesi gerçek olamazm?? gibi geliyor bana; elinizde olmadan, er ya da geç bir ÅŸey olacak diye hayal ediyorsunuz. Büyük hata. Bir hayat pekâlâ da boÅŸ ve k?sa olabilir. Günler ne bir iz ne bir an? b?rakmadan sefil bir ÅŸekilde ak?p gider; ve sonra bir anda duruverir.

As I got older, I also found myself agreeing more with Nietzsche, as is no doubt inevitable once your plumbing starts to fail.

Should I just die? The decision struck me as premature.

All in all, I was harking back to the Ancient Greeks. When you get old, you always hark back to the Ancient Greeks.

I can't hide the truth: I will end my life unhappy, cantankerous and alone, and I will have deserved it.

it isn't the future but past that kills you, that comes back to torment and undermine you, and effectively ends up killing you.

His masterpiece was a dead end—but isn't that true of any masterpiece?

While I was waiting to die, I still had the Journal of Nineteenth-Century Studies.

Por mucho valor, sangre fría y humor que uno acumule a lo largo de su vida, siempre acaba con el corazón destrozado. Y entonces uno deja de reírse. A fin de cuentas ya sólo quedan la soledad, el frío y el silencio. A fin de cuentas, sólo queda la muerte.

Está lección autobiográfica no lo es en realidad: sea como sea, no tengo otra salida. Sino escribo lo que he visto sufriría igual; y quizás un poco más. Un poco solamente, insisto en esto. La escritura no alivia apenas. Describe, delimita. Introduce una sombra de coherencia,una idea de realismo. Uno sigue chapoteando en una niebla sangrienta, pero hay algunos puntos de referencia. El caos se queda a unos pocos metros. Pobre éxito, en realidad.

Life begins at fifty, that's true, inasmuch as it ends at forty.

Men in general don't know how to live: they have no true familiarity with life, and never feel entirely at ease in it, so they pursue different projects, more or less ambitious and more or less grandiose – generally speaking, of course, they fail and reach the conclusion that they would have been better off just living, but as a rule by that point it's too late.

In the end, my cock was all I had.

What would it be like when I was fifty, sixty, older? I'd be no more than a jumble of organs in slow decomposition.

În general, oamenii nu È™tiu s? tr?iasc?, nu se pun de acord cu viaÈ›a, nu se simt bine cu adev?rat în aceast? via??, aÈ™a încât ticluiesc diferite proiecte, mai mult sau mai puÈ›in ambiÈ›ioase, mai mult sau mai puÈ›in m?reÈ›e, dup? caz, È™i, de obicei, dau greÈ™, ajungând la concluzia c? ar fi fost mai bine, pur È™i simplu, s? tr?iasc?, dar, tot de obicei, e prea târziu pentru aÈ™a ceva.