106 Quotes by Ivo Andrić

The streets were empty, the courtyards and gardens as if dead. In the Turkish houses depression and confusion reigned, in the Christian houses caution and distrust. But everywhere and for everyone there was fear. The entering Austrians feared an ambush. The Turks feared the Austrians. The Serbs feared both Austrians and Turks. The Jews feared everything and everyone since, especially in times of war, everyone was stronger than they.

Every human generation has its own illusions with regard to civilization; some believe they are taking part in its upsurge, others that they are witnesses of its extinction. In fact, it always both flames and smolders and is extinguished, according to the place and the angle of view.

...it was an intimate bond between the men of that generation ... for nothing brings men close together than a common misfortune happily overcome.

Brak je vec u pocetku stao da se pokazuje kao ono sto i jeste u ovakvim slucajevima:strahovita zabluda sa jedne strane, a strahovita prevara sa druge.

Whenever a government feels the need of promising peace and prosperity to its citizens by means of a proclamation, it is time to be on guard and expect the opposite.

Hope is an act of desperate defiance against monstrous odds.

Nije najveća budala onaj koji ne zna čitati, nego onaj koji misli da je sve što pročita istina.

We create forms, like a second order of nature, we arrest youth, retain a glance which in "nature" would have changed or vanished a moment later, we seize and separate lightning movements which no one would ever have seen and we leave them, with all their mysterious meaning, to the eyes of future generations.

Dan je....samo bijela hartija, na kojoj se sve biljezi i ispisuje....a racun se placa nocu..na velikim, mracnim poljima nesanice.Ali tu se sve rijesava i brise...konacno i nepovratno..Svaka preboljena patnja,nestaje tu kao rijeka ponornicaili sagori bez traga i spomena...