“Conclusion: better to be a thinking monk than a postmodern thinker.” ThinkingConclusionThinkerMonkPostmodern Author:Muriel Barbery
“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.” ThinkingWayGrammar Author:Muriel Barbery
“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 Source: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“We musn't forget old people with their rotten bodies, old people who are so close to death, something that young people don't want to think about. We musn't forget that our bodies decline, friends die, everyone forgets about us, and the end is solitude. Nor must we forget that these old people were young once, that a lifespan is pathetically short, that one day you're twenty and the next day you're eighty.” PeopleThinkingWantEndsBodyYoungDiesNextForgetOne DaySolitudeTwentiesDeclineNext DayOld PeopleEightyRottenClose To Death Author:Muriel Barbery
“People think that children don't know anything. It's enough to make you wonder if grownups were ever children once upon a time.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsChildrenEnoughWonderOnce Upon A TimeGrownups Author:Muriel Barbery
“But many intelligent people have a sort of bug: they think intelligence is an end in itself. They have one idea in mind: to be intelligent, which is really stupid. And when intelligence takes itself for its own goal, it operates very strangely: the proof that it exists is not to be found in the ingenuity or simplicity of what it produces, but in how obscurely it is expressed.” PeopleThinkingMindIdeasEndsFoundGoalStupidProduceIntelligentSimplicityProofBugsIngenuityReally Stupid Author:Muriel Barbery
“We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees, but we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.” ThinkingDiesPoorFateTasksAccomplishMeaning Of LifeHoneyBeesDestinedHoney BeeBees And Honey Author:Muriel Barbery
“There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature...yes, that's it: just thinking about trees and their indifferent majesty and our love for them teaches us how ridiculous we are - vile parasites squirming on the surface of the earth - and at the same time how deserving of life we can be, when we can honor this beauty that owes us nothing.” ThinkingFirstsFeelingsEarthHumanityWonderTeachTreeHonorSurfaceNostalgiaRidiculousIndifferentOur LoveMajestyDeservingParasitesSense Of WonderInsignificance Author:Muriel Barbery
“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
