José Saramago - Blindness (1995)

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

José Saramago
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
Just as the habit does not make the monk, the sceptre does not make the king.

José Saramago
The habit of falling hardens the body, reaching the ground, to in itself, is a relief.

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
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
You never know beforehand what people are capable of, you have to wait, give it time, it's time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.

José Saramago
But it is also true, if this brings her any consolation, that if, before every action, we were to begin weighing up the consequences, thinking about them in earnest, first the immediate consequences, then the probably, then the possible, then the imaginable ones, we should never move beyond the point where our first thought brought us to a halt.

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
Some drivers have already got out of their cars, prepared to push the stranded vehicle to a spot where it will not hold up the traffic, they beat furiously on the closed windows, the man inside turns his head in their direction, first to one side then to the other, he is clearly shouting something, to judge by the movements of his mouth he appears to be repeating some words, no one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind.

José Saramago
All stories are like those about the creation of the universe, no one was there, no one witnessed anything, yet everyone knows what happened.

José Saramago
Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.

José Saramago
Just like everything else in life, let time take its course and it will find a solution.

José Saramago
Blindness is a private matter between a person and the eyes with which he or she was born.

José Saramago
We all have our moments of weakness, just as well that we are still capable of weeping, tears are often our salvation, there are times when we would die if we did not weep - Blindness

José Saramago
Blind people do not need a name, I am my voice, nothing else matters.

José Saramago
How are you, doctor, that is what we say when we do not wish to play the weakling, we say Fine, even though we may be dying, and this is commonly known as taking one's courage in both hands, a phenomenon that has only been observed in the human species.

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

José Saramago
That night the blind man dreamt that he was blind.

José Saramago
The human being to lack that second skin we call egoism has not yet been born, it lasts much longer than the other one, that bleeds so readily.

José Saramago
When all is said and done, what is clear is that all lives end before their time.

José Saramago
The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them.

José Saramago
If we cannot live entirely like human beings, at least let us do everything in our power not to live entirely like animals.

José Saramago
This is the stuff we're made of, half indifference and half malice.

José Saramago