Samuel Beckett Quotes - Page 2

It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible.

Memory and Habit are attributes of the Time cancer. They control the most simple Proustian episode, and an understanding of their mechanism must precede any particular analysis of their application.

Vladimir: That passed the time.
Estragon: It would have passed in any case.
Vladimir: Yes, but not so rapidly.

Was I asleep? Had I slept?

Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

But even them, my pains, I understand ill. That must come from my not being all pain and nothing else. There's the rub. Then they recede, or I, till they fill me with amaze and wonder, seen from a better planet. Not often, but I ask no more. Catch-cony life! To be nothing but pain, how that would simplify matters! Omnidolent! Impious dream.

To have been always what I am - and so changed from what I was.

To be always what I am - and so changed from what I was.

Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle.

ESTRAGON: Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!
VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?
ESTRAGON: You let me go.

Friendship, according to Proust, is the negation of that irremediable solitude to which every human being is condemned.

As it is with the love of the body, so with the friendship of the mind, the full is only reached by admittance to the most retired places.

Ada: And why life? (Pause.) Why life, Henry? (Pause.) Is there anyone about?
Henry: Not a living soul.
Ada: I thought as much. (Pause.) When we longed to have it to ourselves there was always someone. Now that it does not matter the place is deserted.

Lo que hay que evitar, no sé por qué, es el espíritu de sistema.

If you do not love me I shall not be loved.
If I do not love you I shall not love.

Unfathomable mind: now beacon, now sea.