José Saramago has been one of the best essayists, writers and journalists that the literary world has known, with his way of demonstrating social problems without giving up the beauty that prose can achieve. His way of reflecting social problems in his various works earned him the Nobel Prize in
Below we will see a compilation with the best phrases and reflections of José Saramago, which show the way of thinking of this Portuguese writer.
1. If I am sincere today, what does it matter if I repent tomorrow?
There are times when we usually regret something.
2. I have learned not to try to convince anyone. The work of convincing is a lack of respect, it is an attempt to colonize the other.
We should never impose our ideas on others.
3. Defeat has something positive: it is never definitive. On the other hand, victory has something negative: it is never definitive.
Everything in this life passes.
4. Writers live off the unhappiness of the world. In a brave new world, it wouldn’t be written.
The world is full of many experiences worth writing about.
5. It is stupid to lose the present just for the fear of not being able to win the future.
We have to live in the present, well, it is what we really have.
6. Things are started every day, but, sooner or later, they all end.
Nothing is eternal in life.
7. I am the grandson of a man who, sensing death (…) went down to the garden and said goodbye to the trees he had planted and cared for, crying and hugging each one of them, as if it were a loved one.
A moment in his life that taught him that people can value the nature that surrounds them.
8. At no time in history, anywhere on the planet, have religions served to bring human beings closer to each other.
Love for one’s neighbor has nothing to do with religions, but with our convictions.
9. The journey never ends. Only travelers finish.
Life is a continuous journey.
10. The wisest man I have ever met in my entire life could not read or write.
Wisdom is acquired with experience.
11. The best way to defend your own secrets is to respect those of others.
Do not divulge the secrets they have given you, lest they do the same to you.
12. What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and do nothing to stop the murder of a human being?
People focus on doing things that have little importance and leave aside those that do.
13. Without death there is no resurrection, and without resurrection there is no church.
The resurrection is one of the bases that religions have.
14. Dissent is one of the rights missing from the Declaration of Human Rights.
Understanding and empathy towards other people’s situations allows us to relate better to people.
15. Human beings did not receive the gift of speech to hide their thoughts.
Thoughts and what is said often do not go hand in hand.
16. The more you dress up, the more you will look like yourself.
We stop being afraid to show ourselves when there is no pressure to be perfect.
17. The most important period in my literary career came at the beginning of the Revolution, and, in a way, it took place thanks to the Revolution.
A specific situation or event serves as inspiration.
18. Without a remote possibility of finding work, I dedicated myself exclusively to literature. It was time to find out what I was worth as a writer.
Life gives us opportunities that we must know how to take advantage of.
19.Liking is probably the best way to have, having must be the worst way to like.
Many times we believe that liking and having are synonyms and in reality they are not.
20. I do not write to please nor to displease. I write to unsettle.
The things they do should be to please you, not others.
21. No matter how thick and black the clouds are above our heads, the sky up there will be permanently blue.
Things, no matter how negative they seem, always have a solution.
22. Every man knows what he has, but he does not know what that is worth.
We only know what something is really worth when it is irremediably lost.
23. Life seems like a straight line, but it is not.
Life is a very tortuous path.
24. We always end up arriving where they are waiting for us.
The path always leads to the chosen destination.
25. The only people interested in changing the world are the pessimists, because the optimists are delighted with what there is.
The world is observed from two perspectives, whether optimism or pessimism, we are the only ones responsible for choosing the appropriate view.
26. Everyone tells me that I have to exercise, that it is good for my health. But I have never heard anyone tell an athlete: you have to read.
Reading should always be encouraged for our development.
27. I think we are all blind. We are blind can see, but do not look.
We all look, but few truly observe.
28. Energies always return when hope returns.
Hope is an engine that drives things to be done.
29. Moments do not warn when they come.
Something always comes that we don’t expect.
30. The three diseases of today’s man are lack of communication, the technological revolution and his life focused on his personal triumph.
Human beings have the ability to focus only on their personal well-being, regardless of others.
31. Within us there is something that has no name and that is what we really are.
We have an essence that reflects who we are.
32. We are the memory we have and the responsibility we assume.
Being responsible must be something innate in us.
33. Words are just stones placed across the current of a river. If they are there it is so that we can reach the other margin, the other margin is what matters.
Don’t let the opinions of others truncate your dreams.
34. It is a lie that the Nobel Prize serves to promote the literature of the country to which the winner belongs. The only thing it’s worth for is to increase the author’s checking account.
Recognitions are important for a person, but they do not define them.
35. Whoever is going to die is already dead and does not know it.
36. I believe that we are not blind, I believe that we are blind, blind who see, blind who, seeing, do not see.
There are things that we have with the naked eye and we do not see them.
37. Fear blinds.
And when it blinds us, it prevents us from moving forward.
38. Being a communist, socialist, or having any other ideology is a hormonal issue.
Ideologies are difficult topics to understand.
39. Atheists are the most tolerant people in the world. A believer easily passes into intolerance.
You don’t have to be a religious person to be respectful.
40. Just as the habit does not make the monk, the scepter does not make the king.
The exterior appearance does not always reflect the interior.
41. We can escape everything except ourselves.
The only person who will always haunt us is ourselves.
42. I was a good student in Primary. In second grade I didn’t make any spelling mistakes, and I did third and fourth grades in a single year.
There are people who are very intelligent and take advantage of it.
43. Writing, for me, is a job. I do not separate work from the act of writing, as if they were different things.
You have to love what you do.
44. I have never felt the need for a triumph, the need to have a career, the need to be recognized, the need to be applauded, I have never felt it in my life.
Humility should be a fundamental virtue in every human being.
45. Before starting to write, I have to listen to what sounds in my head, because if I finish a sentence with complete meaning, but that sentence lacks harmony and melody, it is still incomplete.
We must know how to listen to what our interior tells us so as not to make so many mistakes.
46. The eyes make the diversity of the world and create wonders, even if they are made of stone, and the high prows, even if they are of illusion.
Man fabricates truths and illusions.
47. The writer is just a poor devil who works.
The writer is just a person who also works to live.
48. Dignity is priceless. When someone starts giving small concessions, eventually life loses its meaning.
Don’t let anyone want to control your life.
49. Only if we stop to think about the small things will we come to understand the big things.
Simple things also have their charms.
50. Our children, after all, are as good or as bad as the others.
Every person has some good and some bad.
51. I have not done at all times anything more than what I had to do and the consequences have been these, they could have been others.
Doing the right thing also has its consequences.
52. Our only defense against death is love.
Love conquers all.
53. I would like to write a happy book; I have all the elements to be a happy man; but I simply can’t. However, there is one thing that does make me happy, and that is saying what I think.
Happiness is a choice.
54. Old age begins when curiosity is lost.
Old age is not a question of age, but of losing the ability to inquire and learn.
55. Neither youth knows what it can, nor old age what it knows.
Each stage of life has its disadvantage.
56. The worst pain is not the one felt in the moment, but the one felt later when there is nothing that can be done.
When it is too late, we realize that there is no longer a solution.
57. Being fired is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It made me stop and reflect. It was my birth as a writer.
Things happen for a reason.
58. My banners are called pages.
All of his writing is his way of protesting.
59. I do not doubt that a man can live perfectly alone, but I am convinced that he begins to die as soon as he closes the door of his house behind him.
Living as a couple is the ideal state for men.
60. In truth, the first human devoid of that second skin that we call selfishness has yet to be born.
Egoism is an innate feeling in human beings.
61. Everyone sees the world with the eyes they have, and the eyes see what they want.
Each person sees the world through their own lens.
62. Did not find an answer, answers do not always come when one needs them, many times it happens that waiting is the only possible answer.
The solution does not always come when it is needed.
63. Joy and pain are not like oil and water, but they coexist.
Sadness and joy are part of life and we must learn to coexist with both.
64. There are moments in life, for heaven to open it is necessary for a door to close.
Failures are just learning.
65. If you can look, you will see. If you can see it, fix it.
You have the ability to fix what no longer works.
66. What is repentance for, if it does not erase anything that has happened.
Repentance does not solve what happened.
67. Consciences remain silent more than they should.
Being aware is not always worth something.
68. I am dedicated to putting words one after another or before another, to tell a story, to say something that I think is important or useful, or, at least, important or useful to me.
Words are double-edged swords.
69. Every day that passes is a little bit of history.
Have you thought that you are living in a historic moment in life?
70. Death does not need to be cruel. Taking someone’s life is more than enough.
Death can often be the only fair alternative.
71. If literature could change the world, it would have already done so.
Knowledge, unfortunately, is not capable of changing the world.
72. I have not had to renounce communism to get to the Nobel Prize.
You don’t have to give up something to achieve a goal.
73. It is what is that we have to live with, not what would be or could have been.
We have to learn to live with what we have.
74. Yes, I am a pessimist, but it is not my fault that reality is what it is.
Reality is something that sometimes we don’t like.
75. God wanted what he did and did what he wanted.
About the power of God’s will.
76. Sometimes long lives mean loneliness.
As the years go by, loneliness is the only company.
77. We all know that each day that is born is the first for some and will be the last for others and that, for the majority, it is just another day.
A new day represents different things for people.
78. Without memory we do not exist and without responsibility we may not deserve to exist.
We all have something to remember and obligations to fulfill.
79. I don’t believe in God and I don’t need him at all. At least I’m safe to be intolerant.
Talking about his impartiality in the face of differences of opinion, which is often biased by religious beliefs.
80. Now there is no doubt that the unconditional search for personal success implies deep loneliness. That loneliness of water that does not move.
Succeeding can mean in many cases being alone.
81. If you want to have a harvest one day, roll up your sleeves and sow now.
What you do today will pay off tomorrow.
82. If you can look, you will see. If you can see it, fix it.
Don’t sit idly by if you can improve something.
83. History is written from the point of view of the victors, the vanquished have never written history. And it is written, fatally, from a male point of view.
Women have been underestimated throughout history.
84. Americans have discovered fear.
About the exaggeration of Americans in situations.
85. They will clap a lot, many people will go out into the street, and then they will forget about him, this is the law of life, triumph and oblivion.
What is joy today can be forgotten tomorrow.
86. Trees are very shy, they only grow when we are not looking at them.
We should always do things in private so that no one can intervene.
87. This small percentage, this five percent, is the result of sincerity with oneself.
At all times you must be completely honest.
88. To be a Marxist, it is enough for me to look at the world; To have faith, I must look at the sky and imagine that God is up there.
You just have to be convinced of something to believe in it.
89. Winning has never been a goal for me.
We must not allow triumphs to blind us.
90. If you have a heart of iron, good luck. Mine was made of meat, and she bleeds every day.
Ideally, we harbor good and empathetic feelings.
91. To continue living, we must die. That is the history of humanity, generation after generation.
Life and death, an inseparable duo.
92. When I am busy with work that requires continuity, such as a novel, I write every day.
You have to have habits to be able to achieve success.
93. They say time heals wounds, but no one has lived long enough to prove that theory.
Time helps us cope with difficult situations, but it does not ensure that we forget the trauma.
94. The wise man is content with what he has until he invents something better.
Being constantly evolving should be the norm.
95. Democracy has become an instrument of domination of economic power and has no capacity to control abuses of this power.
Democracy also has its negative side.
96. Historical memory must be recovered, maintained and transmitted, because it begins with oblivion and ends in indifference.
It is essential to know our past and thus have a better future.
97. Before we liked to say that the right was stupid, but today I don’t know anything stupider than the left.
In every area, there are stupid people.
98. You have to be very careful with what you think you know, because behind it lies an endless chain of unknowns.
You should never think of yourself as a know-it-all.
99. That’s how life is, it gives with one hand until the day comes when it takes everything away with the other.
Life is made up of pleasant moments and when we least expect it, difficult situations arrive.
100. The Bible is a manual of bad habits, a catalog of cruelty and the worst of human nature.
With these words, Saramago expresses his opinion about the Bible.
101. The older, the freer, and the freer, the more radical.
Freedom has its negative point.
102. They can also subsist in memory, in remembrance, in narration… the objective of a trip is only the beginning of another trip
We remain as long as they remember us.
103. The world is becoming a cave just like Plato’s: everyone looking at images and believing they are reality.
Reality has many nuances.
104. People are born every day, it is only up to them to continue living yesterday or start from the roots and from the cradle the new day, today…
You don’t have to live in the past, but here and now.
105. Will they say, in sound, the things that, in silence, in the silence of our eyes, we confess?
The gaze does not have the ability to lie.
106. We always end up arriving where they expect us.
There is always something or someone waiting for us.
107. The best repentance is simply to change.
The only way to improve is to change what we have done that has not worked well for us.
108. I write because I don’t like the world where I am living.
It is important to find a way to change what we do not like.
109. I am not worried about death, I will dissolve into nothingness.
Death should not be a taboo subject.
110. We build our lives in just five percent, the rest is done through others, because we live with others and sometimes against each other.
Unfortunately, we live around other people’s opinions.
I’m Emily Williams Jones, a psychologist specializing in mental health with a focus on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness. With a Ph.D. in psychology, my career has spanned research, clinical practice and private counseling. I’m dedicated to helping individuals overcome anxiety, depression and trauma by offering a personalized, evidence-based approach that combines the latest research with compassionate care.
