Julian Barnes Quotes - Page 3

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us.

If a memory wasn't a thing but a memory of a memory of a memory, mirrors set in parallel, then what the brain told you now about what it claimed had happened then would be coloured by what had happened in between. It was like a country remembering its history: the past was never just the past, it was what made the present able to live with itself.

Sejarah bukanlah apa yang terjadi. Sejarah hanyalah apa yang dituturkan sejarawan kepada kita.

If you'll excuse a brief history lesson: most people didn't experience 'the sixties' until the seventies. Which meant, logically, that most people in the sixties were still experiencing the fifties-or, in my case, bits of both decades side by side. Which made things rather confusing.

Why slum it where people were burdened by yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that? By history? Here, on the Island, they had learnt how to deal with history, how to sling it carelessly on your back and stride out across the download with the breeze in your face.

What is History? Any thoughts, Webster?'
'History is the lies of the victors," I replied, a little too quickly.
'Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated.

Istorija yra nugalėtojų melas, tik reikia pridurti, jog tai ir nugalėtųjų saviapgaulė.

Our nights are different. She falls asleep like someone yielding to the gentle tug of a warm tide, and floats with confidence till morning. I fall asleep more grudgingly, thrashing at the waves, either reluctant to let a good day depart or still bitching about a bad one. Different currents run through our spells of unconsciousness.

Vienas anglas yra pasakęs, kad santuoka yra ilgai trunkantis valgymas, kai pudingas paduodamas iš pradžių.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

Loving humanity means as much, and as little, as loving raindrops, or loving the Milky Way. You say that you love humanity? Are you sure you aren’t treating yourself to easy self-congratulation, seeking approval, making certain you’re on the right side?

You get towards the end of life - no, not life itself, but of something else: the end of any likelihood of change in that life. You are allowed a long moment of pause, time enough to ask the question: what else have I done wrong?

Most people, in my opinion, steal much of what they are. If they didn't what poor items they would be.

Mes baigėme mokyklą, pasižadėjome draugauti visą gyvenimą ir nuėjome skirtingais keliais

I don't ever want to get old. Spare me that. Have you the power? No, even you don't have the power, alas.

Of course, there were other sorts of literature - theoretical, self-referencial, lachrymosely autobiographical - but they were just dry wanks.