“When you stop to examine the way in which our words are formed and uttered, our sentences are hard-put to it to survive the disaster of their slobbery origins.” WayHardSentencesDisasterOur Words 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
“The best way to make a sort of peace, a fragile armistice to be sure, but precious all the same, with men, officers or not, is to let them bask and wallow in childish self-glorification. There’s no such thing as intelligent vanity. It’s an instinct. And you’ll never find a man who is not first and formenost vain. The role of admiring doormat is about the only one that one man is glad to tolerate in another. With these soldiers I had no need to tax my imagination.” MenWayNeedsFirstsSelfImaginationRolesTaxesIntelligentInstinctSoldierGladBest WayVanityVainOne ManOfficersFragileTolerateMy ImaginationAdmiringGlorificationDoormatSelf GlorificationArmistice 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
“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
“Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.” WayOne WayPretenseCowardlyBeing Afraid Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“You can lose your way groping among the shadows of the past.” WayPastLosesShadow Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“To philosophize is only another way of being afraid and leads hardly anywhere but to cowardly make-believe.” WayBelievePhilosophyPhilosophicalPhilosopherAnother WayCowardlyBeing AfraidMake BelieveCowardly Acts Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
“For the poor of this world, two major ways of expiring are available: either by the absolute indifference of your fellow-men in peace-time, or by the homicidal passion of these same when war breaks out.” MenWorldWayTwoWarPassionPoorPovertyBreakThis WorldMajorsAbsolutesFellowsAvailableIndifferenceFellow ManBreak OutHomicidal Author:Louis-Ferdinand Celine
