91 Quotes by Machado de Assis

He felt that there is a loose balance of good and evil, and that the art of living consists in getting the greatest good out of the greatest evil.

O Diabo, invejoso, fez o homem confundir fé com religião e amor com casamento.

Dreams disdain fine lines and finishing touches on landscapes – they content themselves with thick but representative brushstrokes.

The best thing to do is to loosen my grip on my pen and let it go wandering about until it finds an entrance. There must be one – everything depends on the circumstances, a rule applicable as much to literary style as to life. Each word tugs another one along, one idea another, and that is how books, governments and revolutions are made – some even say that is how Nature created her species.

he best thing to do is to loosen my grip on my pen and let it go wandering about until it finds an entrance. There must be one – everything depends on the circumstances, a rule applicable as much to literary style as to life. Each word tugs another one along, one idea another, and that is how books, governments and revolutions are made – some even say that is how Nature created her species.

I considered the case and realized that if something can exist in opinion without existing in reality, or exist in reality without existing in opinion, the conclusion is that of the two parallel lives, only opinion is necessary – not reality, which is only a secondary consideration.

...one of the roles of man is to shut his eyes and keep them shut to see if he can continue into the night of his old age the dream curtailed in the night of his youth.

era criança e comecei por não ser nascido

Se os mortos vão depressa, os velhos ainda vão mais depressa que os mortos... Viva a mocidade!