641 Quotes by José Saramago

Just as the habit does not make the monk, the sceptre does not make the king.

We're not short of movements proclaiming that a different world is possible, but unless we can coordinate them into an international movement, capitalism just laughs at all these little organisations.

It is strange how the elderly fall silent when they ought to go on speaking, obliging the young to learn everything from scratch.

A tree weeps when cut down, a dog howls when beaten, but a man matures when offended.

It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power.

All the scheming and plotting in the world won't result in something lasting, transcendent. Anything that's authentic, that's real, comes in the form of a gift. Even if by accident.

...for human words are like shadows, and shadows are incapable of explaining light and between shadow and light there is the opaque body from which words are born..

Being fired was the best luck of my life. It made me stop and reflect. It was the birth of my life as a writer.

With the passing of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the colour of blood and in the salt of tears, and, as if that were not enough, we made our eyes into a kind of mirror turned inwards, with the result that they often show without reserve what we are verbally trying to deny.