José Saramago quotes

José Saramago was a Portuguese writer and Nobel laureate, celebrated for his distinctive prose style and thought-provoking novels. His works often explore themes of identity, politics, and the human condition through allegory and satire. He earned international acclaim for books such as "Blindness" and remains a towering figure in world literature. Here are 196 of his quotes:

If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? (José Saramago)
Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are. View quote
José Saramago
Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts. View quote
José Saramago
Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is. View quote
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. View quote
José Saramago
The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them. View quote
José Saramago
Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are. View quote
José Saramago
There are times when it is best to be content with what one has, so as not to lose everything. View quote
José Saramago
From literature to ecology, from the escape velocity of galaxies to the greenhouse effect, from garbage disposal methods to traffic jams, everything is discussed in our world. But the democratic system, as if it were a given fact, untouchable by nature until the end of time, we don't discuss that. View quote
José Saramago
No, there are three people in a marriage, there's the woman, there's the man, and there's what I call the third person, the most important, the person who is composed of the man and woman together. View quote
José Saramago
The wisest man I ever knew in my whole life could not read or write. At four o'clock in the morning, when the promise of a new day still lingered over French lands, he got up from his pallet and left for the fields, taking to pasture the half-dozen pigs whose fertility nourished him and his wife. (José Saramago)
when you are old and realize that time is running out, you start imagining that you have the cure for all the ills of the world in your hand, and get frustrated because no one pays you any attention. View quote
José Saramago
I'm not pessimistic. It is the world that is terrible. How can we be optimistic in the face of a planet where people live so badly, nature is being destroyed and the dominant empire is money? View quote
José Saramago
Doesn't anybody understand that killing in the name of God only makes Him a murderer? View quote
José Saramago
A writer is a man like any other: he dreams. And my dream was to be able to say of this book, when I finished: 'This is a book about Alentejo.' View quote
José Saramago
Forgive me if what has seemed little to you, to me is all. View quote
José Saramago
It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people. View quote
José Saramago
The world is governed by institutions that are not democratic - the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO. View quote
José Saramago
Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt. View quote
José Saramago
Things will be very bad for Latin America. You only have to consider the ambitions and the doctrines of the empire, which regards this region as its backyard. View quote
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)
Death is the inventor of God. View quote
José Saramago
Creating is always so much more stimulating than destroying. View quote
José Saramago
Human nature is, by definition, a talkative one, imprudent, indiscreet, gossipy, incapable of closing its mouth and keeping it closed. View quote
José Saramago
Each part in itself constitutes the whole to which it belongs. View quote
José Saramago