Quotes About Introspection

La conoscenza del prossimo ha questo di speciale: passa necessariamente attraverso la conoscenza di se stesso.

Si una noche de invierno un viajero, fuera del poblado de Malbork, asomándose desde la abrupta costa sin temor al viento y al vértigo, mira hacia abajo donde la sombra se adensa en una red de líneas que se entrelazan, en una red de líneas que se intersecan sobre la alfombra de hojas iluminadas por la luna en torno a una fosa vacía, «¿Cuál historia espera su fin allá abajo?», pregunta, ansioso de escuchar el relato.

nh?ng có lúc ngòi bút ch? rào r?o b?i m?c, không l?n ch?y b?ng m?t gi?t ??i, và cu?c ??i thì toàn b? ?n goài kia, bên ngoài ô c?a s?, bên ngoài b?n, và b?n c?m th?y mình s? không bao gi? còn có th? n??ng náu n?i trang gi?y b?n ?ang vi?t

In seguito a una serie di disavventure intellettuali che non meritano d'essere ricordate, il signor Palomar ha deciso che la sua principale attività sarà guardare le cose dal di fuori.

We can know nothing about what is outside us if we overlook ourselves, he thinks now. The universe is the mirror in which we can contemplate only what we have learned to know in ourselves.

There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence.

Cosimo sat in the ash tree every day, gazing at the meadow as if he could read in it something that had long been consuming him inside: the very idea of distance, of the gap that can't be bridged, of the wait that can last longer than life.

The past is like a tapeworm, constantly growing, which I carry curled up inside me, and it never loses its rings no matter how hard I try to empty my guts in every WC, English-style or Turkish, or in the slop jars of prison or the bedpans of hospitals or the latrines of camps, or simply in the bushes, taking a good look first to make sure no snake will pop out, like that time in Venezuela.

Undertakings based on an inner tenacity have to be mute and obscure; one has only to declare or glory in them and it all appears silly, without meaning, even petty.

Yolcu sahip oldu?u tenhay? tan?r, sahip olmad??? ve olamayaca?? kalabal??? ke?federek.

On sober reflection, you prefer it this way, confronting something and not quite knowing yet what it is.

Elsewhere is a negative mirror. The traveller recognises the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have.

Eu chegara ao limiar da adolescência e ainda me ocultava entre as raízes das grandes árvores do bosque para me contar histórias. Uma agulha de pinheiro podia representar para mim um cavaleiro ou uma dama ou um bufão; movimentava-a diante de meus olhos e me exaltava em relatos intermináveis. Depois ficava com vergonha dessas fantasias e fugia.

instead I find myself more and more outside; from one courtyard I move to another courtyard, as if in this palace all the doors served only for leaving and never for entering.

Agilulfo trascina un morto e pensa:"[...]E' vero che chi esiste ci mette sempre anche un qualcosa, una impronta particolare, che a me non riuscirà mai di dare. Ma se il loro segreto è qui, in questo succo di trippe, grazie, ne faccio a meno. Questa valle di corpi nudi che si disgregano non mi fa più ribrezzo del carnaio del genere umano vivente.

Meanwhile, what do you do? How do you occupy this absence of yourself from the world and of the world from you? You read; you do not raise your eyes from the book between one airport and the other, because beyond the page there is the void, the anonymity of stopovers, of the metallic uterus that contains you and nourishes you, of the passing crowd always different and always the same.

Will I ever be able to say, "Today it writes," just like "Today it rains," "Today it is windy"?

Cosimo si gettò nel folto: avrebbe voluto che fosse mille volte più folto, una valanga di foglie e rami e spini e caprifogli e capelveneri da affondarci e sprofondarci e solo dopo essercisi del tutto sommerso cominciare a capire se era felice o folle di paura.

Hep ba??n arkaya dönük mü ilerlersin sen- ya da: -Gördü?ün ?ey hep geride kalan m?d?r?- ya da daha do?rusu: -Yaln?z geçmi?e mi senin yolculu?un?

Ba?ka yer, negatif bir aynad?r. Yolcu sahip oldu?u tenhay? tan?r, sahip olmad??? ve olmayaca?? kalabal??? ke?federek.

Meanwhile I understood: my mistake with Olivia was to consider myself eaten by her, whereas I should be myself (I always had been) the one who ate her. The most appetizingly flavored human flesh belongs to the eater of human flesh. It was only by feeding ravenously on Olivia that I would cease being tasteless to her palate.

Vuoto separazione e attesa, questo siamo.

Ils se connurent. Il la connut et se connut lui-même parce que, réellement, il n'avait jusque là rien su de lui. Elle le connut et se connut elle-même parce que, tout en sachant tout ce qu'elle était, elle ne l'avait jamais aussi bien senti.

without ever knowing what he believed in, but trying to believe firmly until the last.