José Saramago Quotes

147 Sourced Quotes

Do you want me to tell you what I think, Yes, do, I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.

José Saramago
Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.

José Saramago
Today's bread does not eliminate yesterday's hunger, much less that of tomorrow.

José Saramago
Life is like that, full of words that are not worth saying or that were worth saying once but not any more, each word that we utter will take up the space of another more deserving word, not deserving in its own right, but because of the possible consequences of saying it.

José Saramago
The skin is only what we want others to see of us, underneath it not even we know who we are.

José Saramago
We confidently say that it's not worth trying to reach any conclusions merely because we decide to stop halfway along the path that would lead us straight to them.

José Saramago
What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over.

José Saramago
Globalization is a form of totalitarianism... It is the rich who rule, and the poor live as they can.

José Saramago
Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions. Decisions make us.

José Saramago
If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?

José Saramago
None of his colleagues noticed who had arrived, they responded to his greetings as they always did, Good morning, Senhor José, they said and they did not know to whom they were speaking.

José Saramago
The sceptics, who are many and stubborn, claim that, when it comes to human nature, if it is true that the opportunity does not always make the thief, it is also true that it helps a lot.

José Saramago
With the passing of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the colour of blood and in the salt of tears, and, as if that were not enough, we made our eyes into a kind of mirror turned inwards, with the result that they often show without reserve what we are verbally trying to deny.

José Saramago
That it's possible not to see a lie even when it's in front of us.

José Saramago
The caressing, melodious tones of humility and flattery never sang in the ears of the clerk Senhor José, these have never had a place in the chromatic scale of feelings normally shown to him.

José Saramago
[...], old photographs are very deceiving, they give us the illusion that we are alive in them, and it's not true, the person we are looking at no longer exists, and if that person could see us, he or she would not recognise him or herself in us, Who's that looking at me so sadly, he or she would say.

José Saramago
This is the way fate usually treats us, it's right there behind us, it has already reached out a hand to touch us on the shoulder while we're still muttering to ourselves, It's all over, that's it, who cares anyhow.

José Saramago
I believe that I've been asked all possible questions. I, myself, if I were a journalist, would not know what to ask me.

José Saramago
The beginning is never the clear, precise end of a thread, the beginning is a long, painfully slow process that requires time and patience in order to find out in which direction it is heading, a process that feels its way along the path ahead like a blind man the beginning is just the beginning, what came before is night on worthless.

José Saramago
It is not pornography that is obscene, it is hunger that is obscene.

José Saramago
Besides the conversation of women, it is dreams that keep the world in orbit. But dreams also form a diadem of moons, therefore the sky is that splendour inside a man's head, if his head is not, in fact, his own unique sky.

José Saramago
The sun appears in one of the upper corners of the rectangle, on the left of anyone looking at the picture.

José Saramago
God, the devil, good, evil, it's all in our heads, not in Heaven or Hell, which we also invented. We do not realize that, having invented God, we immediately became His slaves.

José Saramago
Anyone who gets up early by inclination or has been forced to rise early out of necessity finds it intolerable that others should go on sleeping soundly

José Saramago
Men are angels born without wings, nothing could be nicer than to be born without wings and to make them grow.

José Saramago