To be poor, ugly and, moreover, intelligent condemns one in our society to a dark and disillusioned life...to beauty all is forgiven.
("The Elegance of the Hedgehog")
More Quotes from Muriel Barbery:
Just by observing the adults around me I understood very early on that life goes by in no time at all, yet they're always in such a hurry, so stressed out by deadlines, so eager for now that they needn't think about tomorrow...But if you dread tomorrow, it's because you don't know how to build the present, and when you don't know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it's a lost cause anyway because tomorrow always ends up becoming today, don't you see?Muriel Barbery
I understood that I was suffering because I couldn't make anyone else around me feel better.
Muriel Barbery
How to measure a life's worth? The important thing, said Paloma one day, is not the fact of dying, it is what you are doing in the moment of your death.
Muriel Barbery
The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.
Muriel Barbery
When something is bothering me, I seek refuge. No need to travel far; a trip to the realm of literary memory will suffice. For where can one find more noble distraction, more entertaining company, more delightful enchantment than in literature?
Muriel Barbery
If there is one thing I detest, it's when people transform their powerlessness or alienation into a creed.
Muriel Barbery
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Based on Topics: Life QuotesNothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.
Umberto Eco
The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.
Simone Weil
It is all right for the lion and the lamb to lie down together if they are both asleep, but if one of them begins to get active, it is dangerous.
Crystal Eastman