“Just as teardrops, when they are large and round and compassionate, can leave a long strand washed clean of discord, the summer rain as it washes away the motionless dust can bring to a person's soul something like endless breathing.” PersonsLongSoulSummerRainCleanRoundsEndlessDustBreathingCompassionateStrandsDiscordTeardropSummer Rain Author:Muriel Barbery
“This pause in time, within time ... When did I first experience the exquisite sense of surrender that is only possible with another person? The peace of mind one experiences on one's own, one's certainty of self in the serenity of solitude, are nothing in comparison to the release and openness and fluency one shares with another, in close companionship.” MindFirstsPersonsSelfShareSolitudeSurrenderReleaseCertaintyComparisonPeace Of MindOpennessSerenityPausesCompanionshipExquisiteFluency Author:Muriel Barbery
“..when I say that "he's a truly nasty man," I mean he has so thoroughly renounced everything good that he might have inside him that he's already like a corpse even though he's still alive. Because truly nasty people hate everyone, to be sure, but most of all themselves. Can't you tell when a person hates himself? He becomes a living cadaver, it numbs all his negative emotions but also all the good ones so he won't feel nauseated by who he is.” PeopleMenFeelsMeanPersonsStillsMightHateEmotionAliveNegativeNastyCorpsesNegative EmotionsCadaversNasty People Author:Muriel Barbery
“I know that they're all unhappy because nobody loves the right person the way they should and because they don't understand that it's really their own self that they're mad at.” KnowsWayShouldPersonsSelfMadUnhappyRight Person Author:Muriel Barbery
“If, in our world, there is any chance of becoming the person you haven't yet become...will I know how to seize that chance, turn my life into a garden that will be completely different from my forebears'?” IfsKnowsWorldPersonsDifferentTurnsChanceKnow HowHavensBecomingGardenOur World Author:Muriel Barbery
“We don't recognize each other because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were able to become aware of the fact that we are only ever looking at ourselves in the other person, that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy.” PeopleIfsPersonsFactsAbleCrazyMirrorsPermanentWilderness Author:Muriel Barbery
“Tasting is an act of pleasure and writing about that pleasure is an artistic gesture, but the only true work of art, in the end, is another person's feast.” WritingPersonsArtEndsPleasureArtisticWorks Of ArtGesturesTasting Author:Muriel Barbery
