152 Quotes by Elias Canetti


  • Author Elias Canetti
  • Quote

    Someone who always has to lie discovers that every one of his lies is true.

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  • Author Elias Canetti
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    The planet’s survival has become so uncertain that any effort, any thought that presupposes an assured future amounts to a mad gamble.

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  • Author Elias Canetti
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    How unfair, he thought; I can close my mouth whenever I like, as tight as I like, and what has a mouth to say? It is there for taking in nourishment, yet it is well defended, but ears – ears are a prey to every onslaught.

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  • Author Elias Canetti
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    Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open arms into their misfortune?

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  • Author Elias Canetti
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    In the hierarchy of man’s activities, eating was the lowest. Eating had become the object of a cult, but in fact it was but the preliminary to other, utterly contemptible motions. It occurred to him that he wanted to perform one of these too.

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  • Author Elias Canetti
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    It doesn’t matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.

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