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Muriel Barbery

Muriel Barbery Quotes

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Famous Muriel Barbery Quotes

“I have read so many books. And yet, like most Autodidacts, I am never quite sure of what I have gained from them. There are days when I feel I have been able to grasp all there is know in one single gaze, as if invisible branches suddenly spring out of no where, weaving together all the disparate strands of my reading. And then suddenly the meaning escapes, the essence evaporates and no matter how often I reread the same lines they seem to flee ever further with each subsequent reading and I see myself as some mad old fool who thinks her stomach is full because she's been reading the menu.”

IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsHas BeensBookMatterSeemsAbleTogetherReadingLinesFoolSpringEssenceMadInvisibleBranchesStomachStrandsMenusWeaving
Book:The Elegance of the Hedgehog
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“...This is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. [...] We never look beyond our assumptions and, what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others; we just meet ourselves. We don't recognize each other because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were to become aware of the fact that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy. [...] As for me, I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone.”

PeopleIfsGivingTryingFirstsLooksFactsGivenChanceFateCrazyMetsFirst TimeGive MeMirrorsPermanentAssumptionWildernessGiven Up
Author:Muriel Barbery
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“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain Beauty. When you speak, or read, or write, you can tell if you've spoken or read or written a fine sentence. You can recognise a well-tuned phrase or an elegant style. But when you are applying the rules of grammar skilfully, you ascend to another level of the beauty of language. When you use grammar you peel back the layers, to see how it is all put together, to see it quite naked, in a way.”

IfsThinkingWayWritingWellsUseTogetherSpeakLanguageLevelsWrittenStyleFineSentencesNakedPhrasesLayersElegantGrammarRecognise
Author:Muriel Barbery
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“This morning I understand what it means to die: when we disappear, it is the others who die for us, for here I am, lying on a cold pavement and it is not the dying I care about; it has no more meaning this morning that it did yesterday. But never again will I see those I love, and if that is what dying is about then it really is the tragedy they say it is.”

IfsMeanCareLyingDiesMorningDyingColdTragedyDisappearYesterdayI CareHere I AmPavement
Author:Muriel Barbery
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“Colombe Josse is the older Jesse daughter. Colombe Jesse is also a sort of tall blonde leek who dresses like a penniless Bohemian. If there is one thing I despise, it is the perverse affectation of rich people who go around dressing as if they were poor, in second-hand clothes, ill-fitting gray bonnets, socks full of holes, and flowered shirts under threadbare sweaters. Not only is it ugly, it is also insulting: nothing is more despicable than a rich man's scorn for a poor man's longing.”

PeopleIfsMenHandsPoorRichOne ThingGratitudeClothesDaughterDressesLongingIllUglyHolesShirtsTallGrayDespiseDressingsScornRich PeopleFittingInsultingSockBlondeRich ManPoor ManSweatersDespicableBohemianSecond HandBonnetsSecond Hand Clothes
Author:Muriel Barbery
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“Some people are incapable of perceiving in the object of their contemplation the very thing that gives it its intrinsic life and breath, and they spend their entire lives conversing about mankind as if they were robots, and about things as though they have no soul and must be reduced to what can be said about them - all at the whim of their own subjective inspiration.”

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Author:Muriel Barbery
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