Jose Saramago Quotes

A human being is a being who is constantly 'under construction,' but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction.
Jose Saramago

Human, Fashion, State

I always ask two questions: How many countries have military bases in the United States? And in how many countries does the United States not have military bases?
Jose Saramago

Two, Military, Ask

I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are.
Jose Saramago

Positive, Doubt, Until

It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people.
Jose Saramago

Understand, Difficult, Accepting

Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt.
Jose Saramago

Human, Everything, Knowing

As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.
Jose Saramago

Become, Changes, Involved

Americans have discovered the fragility of life, that ominous fragility that the rest of the world either already experienced or is experiencing now with terrible intensity.
Jose Saramago

Life, Rest, Either

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.
Jose Saramago

Life, Best, Made

I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see.
Jose Saramago

Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.
Jose Saramago

The wisest man I ever knew in my whole life could not read or write.
Jose Saramago

Life, Whole, Write

Abstention means you stayed at home or went to the beach. By casting a blank vote, you're saying you have a political conscience but you don't agree with any of the existing parties.
Jose Saramago

Home, Political, Saying

In the end we discover the only condition for living is to die.
Jose Saramago

End, Die, Living

Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.
Jose Saramago

Words, Thoughts, Order

I can't imagine myself outside any kind of social or political involvement.
Jose Saramago

Political, Social, Imagine

I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.
Jose Saramago

Home, Help, Learn

I presume that nobody will deny the positive aspects of the North American cultural world. These are well known to all. But these aspects do not make one forget the disastrous effects of the industrial and commercial process of 'cultural lamination' that the USA is perpetrating on the planet.
Jose Saramago

Positive, Forget, American

Look what happened with the employment law in France-the law was withdrawn because the people marched in the streets. I think what we need is a global protest movement of people who won't give up.
Jose Saramago

Society has to change, but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.
Jose Saramago

Change, Society, Political

Americans have discovered fear.
Jose Saramago

Fear, Discovered

Beginning with adolescence, my political formation was oriented in the ideological direction of Marxism. It was natural, being that my thinking was influenced by an atmosphere of active critical resistance. That was the way it was during all of the dictatorship and up to the Revolution of 1974.
Jose Saramago

Political, Thinking, Revolution

Can you imagine what Bush would say if someone like Hugo Chavez asked him for a little piece of land to install a military base, and he only wanted to plant a Venezuelan flag there?
Jose Saramago

Someone, Him, Wanted

I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist.
Jose Saramago

Poet, Novelist, Playwright

I am a person with leftist convictions, and always have been.
Jose Saramago

Person, Leftist

I am not a prophet.
Jose Saramago

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Biography

Nationality: Portuguese

Type: Writer

Born: November 16, 1922

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Cite this Page: Citation

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