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Julian Barnes

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Famous Julian Barnes Quotes

“What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?' 'History is the lies of the victors,' I replied, a little too quickly. 'Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated. ... 'Finn?' '"History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation." (quoting Patrick Lagrange)”

WellsLittlesLongSelfRememberLyingMemoriesCertaintyDelusionImperfectionDefeatedInadequacyQuotingDocumentationSelf Delusion
Author:Julian Barnes
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“But I’ve been turning over in my mind the question of nostalgia, and whether I suffer from it. I certainly don’t get soggy at the memory of some childhood knickknack; nor do I want to deceive myself sentimentally about something that wasn’t even true at the time—love of the old school, and so on. But if nostalgia means the powerful recollection of strong emotions—and a regret that such feelings are no longer present in our lives—then I plead guilty.”

IfsWantMindMeanFeelingsSchoolSufferingStrongMemoriesPowerfulEmotionOur LivesChildhoodRegretNostalgiaGuiltyDeceivingRecollectionOld SchoolTime LoveStrong Emotions
Author:Julian Barnes
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“In my terms, I settled for the realities of life, and submitted to its necessities: if this, then that, and so the years passed. In Adrian's terms, I gave up on life, gave up on examining it, took it as it came. And so, for the first time, I began to feel a more general remorse - a feeling somewhere between self-pity and self-hatred - about my whole life. All of it. I had lost the friends of my youth. I had lost the love of my wife. I had abandoned the ambitions I had entertained. I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and had succeeded - and how pitiful that was.”

IfsFeelsYearsFirstsSelfWholeFeelingsRealityWantedLostTermToo MuchWifeYouthAmbitionFirst TimeHatredMy WifeWhole LifePityBotherReality Of LifeAbandonedRemorseGave UpSelf PityExaminingSelf HatredPitiful
Author:Julian Barnes
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“And no, it wasn't shame I now felt, or guilt, but something rarer in my life and stronger than both: remorse. A feeling which is more complicated, curdled, and primeval. Whose chief characteristic is that nothing can be done about it: too much time has passed, too much damage has been done, for amends to be made.”

Has BeensMadeDoneFeelingsFeltToo MuchStrongerShameGuiltComplicatedChiefsDamageCharacteristicsRemorseAmendsPrimeval
Book:The Sense of an Ending
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“...life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is the moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.”

IfsThinkingHumansPersonsLife IsAsksDecisionMoralConditionsDutyConsequencePhilosophicalAskingRenounceLife Is A GiftThinking Person
Book:The Sense of an Ending
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“When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.”

MayBookDifferentCountryPainJoyReadingUnderstandingSpeechPatternsDeeperParadoxSuperficialPlungeSubtletyGreat BookDifferent Countries
Author:Julian Barnes
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“In those days, we imagined ourselves as being kept in some kind of holding pen, waiting to be released into our lives. And when the moment came, our lives -- and time itself -- would speed up. How were we to know that our lives had in any case begun, that some advantage had already been gained, some damage already inflicted? Also, that our release would only be into a larger holding pen, whose boundaries would be at first undiscernible.”

KnowsFirstsKindMomentsWould BeWaitingCasesOur LivesAdvantageSpeedBoundariesReleaseDamagePensLife And Time
Author:Julian Barnes
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“Not merely hope, but any burdensome yearning: ambition, hatred, love (especially love) - how rarely do our emotions meet the object they seem to deserve? How hopelessly we signal; how dark the sky; how big the waves. We are all lost at see, washed between hope and despair, hailing something that may never come to rescue us. Catastrophe has become art; but this is no reducing process. It is freeing, enlarging, explaining. Catastrophe has become art: that is, after all, what it is for.”

MayArtBigsSeemsLostProcessDarkEmotionSkyObjectsDespairAmbitionDeserveHatredWaveYearningRescueCatastropheSignalsExplainingReducingHope And DespairHatred For Love
Book:A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters
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“When we're young, everyone over the age of thirty looks middle-aged, everyone over fifty antique. And time, as it goes by, confirms that we weren't that wrong. Those little age differentials, so crucial and so gross when we are young erode. We end up all belonging to the same category, that of the non-young. I've never much minded this myself.”

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Author:Julian Barnes
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