Machado de Assis Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

In ordinary life, the action of a third party does not free the contractor from an obligation; but the advantage of making a contract with heaven is that intentions are valid currency.

Machado de Assis
There is only one genuine misfortune: not to be born.

Machado de Assis
He felt that there is a loose balance of good and evil, and that the art of living consists in getting the greatest good out of the greatest evil.

Machado de Assis
Dreams disdain fine lines and finishing touches on landscapes – they content themselves with thick but representative brushstrokes.

Machado de Assis
I considered the case and realized that if something can exist in opinion without existing in reality, or exist in reality without existing in opinion, the conclusion is that of the two parallel lives, only opinion is necessary – not reality, which is only a secondary consideration.

Machado de Assis
The best thing to do is to loosen my grip on my pen and let it go wandering about until it finds an entrance. There must be one – everything depends on the circumstances, a rule applicable as much to literary style as to life. Each word tugs another one along, one idea another, and that is how books, governments and revolutions are made – some even say that is how Nature created her species.

Machado de Assis
Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next.

Machado de Assis