“It is in our relations with other people that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable.” PeopleRelationshipsIdentity Book:Platform Source: Platform
“I tend to think that good and evil exist and that the quantity in each of us is unchangeable. The moral character of people is set, fixed until death.” PeopleThinkingCharacterEvilMoralFixedGood And EvilQuantityUnchangeableMoral Character Author:Michel Houellebecq
“As a teenager, Michel believed that suffering conferred dignity on a person. Now he had to admit that he had been wrong. What conferred dignity on people was television.” PeoplePersonsSufferingTelevisionDignityTeenager Author:Michel Houellebecq
“People are suspicious of single men on vacation, after they get to a certain age: they assume that they're selfish, and probably a bit pervy. I can't say they're wrong.” PeopleMenI CanAgeCertainBitsAssumingSelfishVacationSuspiciousSingle Man Book:Platform: A Novel Source: Platform: A Novel
“Irony won't save you from anything; humour doesn't do anything at all. You can look at life ironically for years, maybe decades; there are people who seem to go through most of their lives seeing the funny side, but in the end, life always breaks your heart. Doesn't matter how brave you are, or how reserved, or how much you've developed a sense of humour, you still end up with your heart broken. That's when you stop laughing.” PeopleYearsLooksHeartStillsEndsMatterSeemsSidesBreakLaughingSeeingHumourBrokenBraveDecadesIronyReservedBreak Your Heart Author:Michel Houellebecq
“Just like unrestrained economic liberalism, and for similar reasons, sexual liberalism produces phenomena of absolute pauperization. Some men make love every day; others five or six times in their life, or never. Some make love with dozens of women, others with none. It’s what’s known as ‘the law of the market’… In a totally liberal sexual system certain people have a varied and exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.” PeopleMenReasonLawCertainKnownFiveEconomicProduceSolitudeSixExcitingAbsolutesLiberalismDozenMaking LoveEroticMasturbation Book:Whatever: A Novel Source: Whatever: A Novel
“I hadn’t seen any novel make the statement that entering the workforce was like entering the grave. That from then on, nothing happens and you have to pretend to be interested in your work. And, furthermore, that some people have a sex life and others don’t just because some are more attractive than others. I wanted to acknowledge that if people don’t have a sex life, it’s not for some moral reason, it’s just because they’re ugly. Once you’ve said it, it sounds obvious, but I wanted to say it.” PeopleIfsSaidReasonHappensWantedSexSoundMoralNovelObviousUglyGravesThings HappenStatementsAcknowledgeAttractiveEnteringWorkforce Author:Michel Houellebecq
“Without beauty a girl is unhappy because she has missed her chance to be loved. People do not jeer at her, they are not cruel to her, but it is as if she were invisible, no eyes follow her as she walks. People feel uncomfortable when they are with her. They find it easier to ignore her. A girl who is exceptionally beautiful, on the other hand, who has something which too far surpasses the customary seductive freshness of adolescence, appears somehow unreal. Great beauty seems invariably to portend some tragic fate.” PeopleIfsFeelsHandsSeemsEyeBeautifulGirlChanceWalksFateEasierInvisibleUnhappyUncomfortableTragicAdolescenceUnrealSeductiveFreshnessTragic Fate Book:The Elementary Particles Source: The Elementary Particles
“Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.” PeopleWorldImportantIdeasActiveChanging The WorldWorld HistoryDon't ChangePeople Don't ChangeJean Jacques RousseauJacques Rousseau Author:Michel Houellebecq
“I think that if I am notorious, it is because other people have decided that this is how I should be.” PeopleIfsThinkingShouldDecidedNotorious Author:Michel Houellebecq
