“There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.” PeopleSelfInterestInspiredHumbleSelf InterestSadism Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“Maybe I'd never see him again... maybe he'd gone for good... swallowed up, body and soul, in the kind of stories you hear about... Ah, it's an awful thing... and being young doesn't help any... when you notice for the first time... the way you lose people as you go along ... the buddies you'll never see again... never again... when you notice that they've disappeared like dreams... that it's all over... finished... that you too will get lost someday... a long way off but inevitably... in the awful torrent of things and people... of the days and shapes... that pass... that never stop.” PeopleWayFirstsKindLongSoulHelpingStoriesDreamBodyYoungLostLosesGoneShapesFirst TimeFinishedAwfulSomedayLong WayBuddy Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“The biggest defeat in every department of life is to forget, especially the things that have done you in, and to die without realizing how far people can go in the way of crumminess. When the grave lies open before us, let's not try to be witty, but record the worst of human viciousness we've seen without changing one word. When that's done, we can curl up our toes and sink into the pit. That's work enough for a lifetime.” PeopleWayTryingHumansDoneEnoughHandsLife IsLyingDiesRealizingForgetRecordsWorstLifetimeDefeatWittyGravesDepartmentToesPitsOne WordCurls Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“They came from the four corners of the earth, driven by hunger, plague, tumors, and the cold, and stopped here. They couldn’t go any futrther because of the ocean. That’s France, that’s the French people.” PeopleEarthFourColdOceanHungerCornersDrivenFrancePlagueTumors Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“An unfamiliar city is a fine thing. That's the time and place when you can suppose that all the people you meet are nice. It's dream time.” PeopleDreamCitiesNiceFineUnfamiliarFine Things Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them.” PeopleShowsRealityFrontsDeserveRestraintDeliriumDelirium Tremens Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months ... they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off of ... blah! and blah! and blahblahblah! ... you put up with it for an hour, you'll need two weeks to recover ... blah! blah!” PeopleNeedsTwoUseHoursChanceWeekWallMonthsWasteBullshitTwo WeeksBounceNever FearBlah Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“I hadn't found out yet that mankind consists of two very different races, the rich and the poor. It took me ... and plenty of other people . . . twenty years and the war to learn to stick to my class and ask the price of things before touching them, let alone setting my heart on them.” PeopleYearsHeartTwoDifferentWarAsksFoundPoorRaceClassRichMankindMy HeartTwentiesSticksSettingSettingsPlentyTouchingDifferent Races Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“The sadness of the world has different ways of getting to people, but it seems to succeed almost every time.” PeopleWorldWayDifferentSeemsSadnessSucceedDifferent Ways Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.” PeopleHateAsksPoorExplanationPoor People Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“You can lose your way groping among the shadows of the past. It's frightening how many people and things there are in a man's past that have stopped moving. The living people we've lost in the crypts of time sleep so soundly side by side with the dead that the same darkness envelops them all. As we grow older, we no longer know whom to awaken, the living or the dead.” PeopleKnowsMenWayPastMovingLostGrowsSidesLosesSleepDarknessShadowFrightening Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“When you stay too long in the same place, things and people go to pot on you, they rot and start stinking for your special benefit.” PeopleLongSpecialBenefitsPot Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“In the whole of your absurd past you discover so much that's absurd, so much deceit and credulity, that it might be a good idea to stop being young this minute, to wait for youth to break away from you and pass you by, to watch it going away, receding in the distance, to see all its vanity, run your hand through the empty space it has left behind, take a last look at it, and then start moving, make sure your youth has really gone, and then calmly, all by yourself, cross to the other side of Time to see what people and things really look like.” PeopleLooksIdeasWholeHandsMightRunningLastsPastMovingYoungLeftWaitingSidesSpaceBehindsWatchesBreakGoneMinutesYouthCrossesEmptyDistanceAbsurdVanityDeceitGoing AwayGood IdeasLeft BehindAway From YouEmpty SpaceCredulity Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“The rich don't have to kill to eat. They employ people, as they call it. The rich don't do evil themselves. They pay. People do all they can to please them, and everybody's happy.” PeopleEvilPayRichPlease Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“The whole business of your life overwhelms you when you live alone. One's stupefied by it. To get rid of it you try to daub some of it off on to people who come to see you, and they hate that. To be alone trains one for death.” PeopleTryingWholeHateBusinessSolitudeTrain Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“Most people die at the last minute; others twenty years beforehand, some even earlier. They are the wretched of the earth.” PeopleYearsEarthLastsDiesMinutesTwentiesWretchedCarpe DiemCarpeLast Minute Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
