Mihail Sebastian Quotes

“There is doubtless such a thing as a ’national character’. In art, it is the lowest common denominator. The more specific the character, the more commonplace it is. That is why creation always requires overcoming such a character. An artist, if he is anything, is an individual. But to be an individual means embodying your own truths, suffering your own experiences, and inventing your own style. But these things can only occur by renouncing facility, and the most unfortunate facility comes from these so-called national characters, formed by the sedimentation of collective mediocrity, which lies there ready-made. National character is by definition that which remains in a culture after you have removed the personal effort involved in thinking, the personal experience of life and the triumph of individual creation.”

Art Individuality Political Philosophy

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“Elle aurait voulu le savoir plongé dans la passion comme dans une mer : que l’eau palpite sourdement à ses oreilles, que ses yeux se ferment, que les mouvements de son corps soient instinctifs, désespérés, inconscients.”

Passion

Author:Mihail Sebastian

“Mona, tu eşti un animal de lux. Eşti făcută din puţin parfum, din multă lene, din oarecare fantezie.”

Women

Book:Steaua fără nume

Source: Steaua fără nume

“I've always believed that the only defeats and victories that matter in life are those you lose or win alone, against yourself.”

Victory Solitude Defeat Alone

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“You see, the notion of "sin" is for me an abstraction. There's no such thing as "sin". There's only such a thing as "tactlessness".”

Sin Morals Abstraction

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“I embraced her and she did not object at all. She let herself be kissed and kissed back, but coolly, without conviction, absently, as if she were smoking a cigarette.”

Kissing Kiss Smoking

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“Doesn't being over-familiar put you at a disadvantage? A more formal way of speaking doesn't just mean you're being polite, it's also a way of protecting yourself.”

Manners Familiarity Reserve

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“I have always believed it my right to have a locked door between me and the world, and to hold the key myself. Now look at it, kicked open. The doors are off their hinges, the portals unguarded, every cover blown.”

Solitude Solitude As A Choice

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“I could reply. I could tell him that a metaphor is inadequate in the face of a bloodbath. That a Platonic inclination for dying doesn't balance out the serious decision to kill. That through the ages there has never been a great historical infamy committed for which there couldn't be found a symbol just as big, to justify it. That, in consequence, we would do well to pay attention to great certainties, to great invocations, to the great 'droughts' and 'rains'. That the temper of our most violent outbursts might benefit from a shade less enthusiasm. I could reply. But what good would it do? I have a simple, resigned, inexplicable sensation that everything that is happening is in the normal order of things and that I am awaiting a season that will come and pass -- because it has come and passed before.”

Oppression Futility Inevitability Impotence

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“Barurile astea sunt ca femeile: nu ştii nici de ce vin, nici de ce te lasă.”

Citat Femei Amuzant Baruri

Book:L'ACCIDENT

Source: L'ACCIDENT

“What an odd thing a stranger is. A stranger sleeping next to you. I listen to his breathing as if it were his entire life, with its hidden processes, the pulsing of the blood in the tissues, with thousands of tiny hidden decays and combustions, which together create and maintain him.”

Sleep Stranger Strangers Stranger In My Bed

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

“A stranger sleeps next to me, like a stone beside another stone.”

Sleep Stranger Sleeping Stranger In My Bed

Book:For Two Thousand Years

Source: For Two Thousand Years

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