The 100 best phrases (and reflections) by José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago was a renowned journalist, writer and essayist of Portuguese origin. that, thanks to his work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. His works are easily recognized by their satirical and ironic tone that serves to give an accurate critique of history and society.

He was also an excellent example of struggle and improvement, since his mother was illiterate, he grew up in a low-income family and was unable to finish his studies because he had to work at an early age.

• We recommend you read: "85 great famous phrases of Oscar Wilde"

Best quotes and phrases of José Saramago

As a tribute to his career and achievements, we will take a walk through his life through the best phrases of José Saramago that will make us see the other side of opportunities and life.

1. Liking is probably the best way to have, having must be the worst way to like.

To please someone you have to be yourself.

2. If you have an iron heart, good luck. Mine, they made it out of meat, and it bleeds every day.

Feelings are a treasure that must be taken care of.

3. The journey never ends. Only travelers finish. And they can also subsist in memory, in memory, in narration...

Death only exists when the deceased person is forgotten.

4. The defeat has something positive, is never final. On the other hand, victory has something negative, it is never definitive.

Both positive and negative situations pass.

5. The most important period in my literary career came at the beginning of the Revolution, and, in a way, it happened thanks to the Revolution.

There are events that mark the world.

6. I do not write to please nor to dislike. I write to unsettle.

Things are done because it gives us pleasure to do them, not to please someone.

7. Triumph has never been a goal for me.

We must not look for the reward, but do what we want because it pleases us.

8. I'm not pessimistic, what happens is that the world is lousy.

The world has negative things because the human being is too.

9. The writer is just a poor devil who works.

The writer is just a person who also works for a living.

10. The only people interested in changing the world are the pessimists, because the optimists are delighted with what there is.

Each person has their way of seeing the world.

11. We always end up arriving where we are expected.

Knowing that someone is waiting for us is an incentive along the way.

12. It is stupid to lose the present just for fear of not winning the future.

Don't focus on the future, take advantage of the present.

13. Every day things start, but sooner or later, they all end.

Life is a continuous start.

14. I am the grandson of a man who, sensing death […] went down to the orchard and went to say goodbye to the trees that he had planted and cared for, crying and hugging each one of them, as if it were a loved one.

There are living beings that earn our love more than people themselves.

15. What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the murder of a human being?

Humanity is focusing on conquering other worlds and forgetting to conquer itself.

16. I don't believe in God, I don't need him and I'm also a good person.

It refers to the atheist condition of the writer.

17. We are the memory we have and the responsibility we assume.

Responsibility is something we all must learn.

18. Now there is no doubt that the unconditional search for personal triumph implies profound loneliness. That solitude of the water that does not move.

Seeking inner well-being means giving up many things.

19. What is repentance for, if that doesn't erase anything that has happened.

Repentance often comes too late.

20. We all know that each day that is born is the first for some and will be the last for others and that, for most, it is just another day.

A new day represents many things.

21. If you can look, you will see. If you can see it, fix it.

When you have the ability to fix something, don't think twice.

22. What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and do nothing to stop the murder of a human being?

What you do now will pay off tomorrow.

23. At least I'm safe to be intolerant. Atheists are the most tolerant people in the world. A believer easily passes into intolerance.

A person's values ​​are not necessarily tied to religious beliefs.

24. Americans have discovered fear.

Fear is something that is always around us.

25. Before I start writing, I have to listen to what sounds in my head, because if I finish a sentence with all the sense, but that sentence lacks harmony and melody, it is still incomplete.

Knowing how to listen is something that all of humanity needs.

26. My banners are called pages.

His particular way of protesting.

27. At no time in history, anywhere on the planet, have religions served to bring human beings closer to each other. On the contrary, they have only served to separate, to burn, to torture.

Religions also have their flaws.

28. I was a good student in elementary school. In second grade I did not make spelling mistakes, and third and fourth I did them in a single year.

It refers to the importance of being committed to education.

29. To be a maxista, 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 don't have to be into something all the time to believe in it.

30. If literature could change the world, it would have already done so.

Unfortunately, books are not that powerful in changing the mindset of mankind.

31. Our children, after all, are as good or as bad as the others.

Every person has the potential to become either good or bad.

32. Within us there is something that has no name and that is what we really are.

We have within us the soul and it represents our essence.

33. Will they say, in sound, the things that, in silence, in the silence of the eyes, we confess?

The look doesn't lie.

34. What is the use of talking about reasons, sometimes one is enough, sometimes not even putting them all together.

Just one reason is enough to change your life.

35. I have learned not to try to convince anyone. The work of convincing is disrespectful, it is an attempt to colonize the other.

Don't try to change another, he will only change if he wants to.

36. The best repentance is simply to change.

If someone truly repents, then he is ready to change.

37. Without memory we do not exist and without responsibility we may not deserve to exist.

Consciousness and responsibility are two things that we all must include in life.

38. I'm a hormonal communist.

José Saramago was a sympathizer of this political thought.

39. The world is becoming a cave just like Plato's: everyone looking at images and believing they are reality.

Most people only believe what they see, even if it is not the truth.

40. People are born every day, it only depends on them to continue living yesterday or to start from the root and from the cradle the new day, today...

Every day is a new beginning.

41. No matter how thick and black the clouds are overhead, the sky up there will always be blue.

When a problem affects you, just look up.

42. Everyone tells me that I have to exercise, that it is good for my health. But I have never heard anyone say to an athlete: you have to read.

What they tell you is not always what is indicated, even if it has some truth.

43. Writers live off the unhappiness of the world. In a brave new world, I wouldn't be a writer.

The misfortunes are topics that most catches the attention of the public.

44. Dissent is one of the rights missing from the Declaration of Human Rights.

Disagreement should be a fundamental right of people.

45. We used to like to say that the right was stupid, but nowadays I don't know anything more stupid than the left.

No political trend is correct.

46. I write because I don't like the world I'm living in.

We all must find a way to change the world.

47. Every man has his plot of land to cultivate. The important thing is that they go deep when they dig.

It is essential to delve a little inside ourselves to find our true essence.

48. The universe is completely unaware of our existence.

We do not know for sure if there are other lives in the universe.

49. We human beings kill more than death.

Man is a dangerous predator.

50. In a time like now, where elders are so easily put down, I think I'm a very good example.

There is great contempt for older people.

51. I keep writing, trying to understand (things), because I have nothing better to do and knowing that I will reach the end knowing the same thing that I knew before, that is to say little or almost nothing.

Follow what you do and every day seek to learn more.

52. To continue living, we must die. That is the history of mankind, generation after generation.

Death is where we all go inevitably.

53. Without a remote possibility of finding work, I dedicated myself exclusively to literature. It was time to find out what he was worth as a writer.

It is always good to learn other trades.

54. It is not bad to have an illusion, the bad thing is to get excited.

When you have an illusion, work to make it come true.

55. When I am busy with work that wants continuity, like a novel, I write every day.

When we do what we are passionate about, nothing stops us.

56. The three illnesses of today's man are isolation, the technological revolution and his life centered on his personal triumph.

It refers to the vices that man faces today.

57. The goal of a journey is only the beginning of another journey.

When you try something, try to make it a continuation of what you do.

58. I hope to die as I have lived, respecting myself as a condition for respecting others and without losing the idea that the world should be different and not this infamous thing.

If we have a decent life, death will be too.

59. Let's not rush, but let's not waste time either.

Don't rush, but don't waste time either.

60. Being a communist, socialist, or having any other ideology is a hormonal issue.

Every political tendency has virtues and defects.

61. Neither youth knows what he can, nor old age can what he knows.

The youth waste their time and the old yearn for them.

62. Every man knows what he has but he doesn't know what it's worth.

It is only when something that is loved is lost that we realize its worth.

63. We build our lives on just five percent, the rest is done through others, because we live with others and sometimes against each other. But this small percentage, this five percent, is the result of being honest with oneself.

Do not live according to the opinion of others.

64. We are blind who can see, but do not look.

Although we are aware of the bad things that happen around us, many prefer to ignore them.

65. 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.

Being recognized does not bring happiness.

66. Words are just stones placed across the stream 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 pay attention to the words.

67. Without memory we do not exist and without responsibility we may not deserve to exist.

You have to be aware and committed.

68. There are hopes that it is crazy to have. Well, I tell you that if it weren't for these I would have given up on life.

Having hope is what keeps us going.

69. Only if we stop to think about the little things will we come to understand the big ones.

Little things lead to something better.

70. Writing, for me, is a job. I don't separate work from the act of writing, as if they were different things.

Work must be linked to what we like to do.

71. I have not had to renounce communism to get the Nobel.

Sometimes you have to give up something in order to achieve something else.

72. I do not excuse what the communist regimes have done… But I have the right to maintain my ideas. I haven't found anything better.

No one should be judged by their ideals.

73. Death is a "natural, almost unconscious" process.

Death is part of life.

74. History is written from the point of view of the victors, the vanquished have never written history. And it is written, fatally, from a masculine point of view.

Success is one of those that characterizes the winners.

75. The energies always return when hope returns.

By having a hope, we are filled with energy to continue.

76. It's time to howl, because if we let ourselves be carried away by the powers that govern us, and do nothing to counteract them, it can be said that we deserve what we have.

It is essential to raise our voice of protest when necessary.

77. Our only defense against death is love.

Love manages to win even death because, if someone is remembered with love, they will never die.

78. For nostalgic temperaments, generally fragile, inflexible, living alone is a very harsh punishment.

Loneliness was not made for anyone, much less for those who do not know how to live alone.

79. Chaos is an undeciphered order.

There are also good ideas in the mess.

80. Consciences remain silent more than they should.

There is no need to remain silent in the face of aberrant situations.

81. The shopping center is the new cathedral of today's society.

Shopping centers have become the soul of cities.

82. What is really obscene is that you can starve.

Famine is the worst pandemic and punishment that can exist.

83. There are moments in life, for the sky to open it is necessary for a door to close.

If a door closes, find a way to open a window.

84. Success at all costs makes us worse than animals.

Seeking success makes many people bring out the worst in them.

85. We do no more in life than go looking for the place to stay forever.

We are in search of the right path.

86. Being fired is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It made me stop to think. It was my birth as a writer.

Very good things can also come from catastrophic moments.

87. The best way to defend your own secrets is by respecting those of others.

If you respect the opinion of others, yours will be respected.

88. Joy and pain are not like oil and water, but coexist.

Pain and happiness go together on the same path.

89. The more you dress up, the more you will look like yourself.

Do not seek to look like someone else as it is a reflection of yourself.

90. The moments do not warn when they come.

No positive or negative moment warns of its arrival.

91. In truth, the first human devoid of that second skin we call selfishness has yet to be born.

Selfishness is a feeling that is within human nature.

92. I will enter nothingness and dissolve into it.

Entering our interior is a way of knowing ourselves.

93. The big problem with our democratic system is that it allows us to do undemocratic things democratically.

Democracy also has its flaws.

94. I think we are all blind.

Humanity has its eyes closed, because it allows a lot of violence.

95. I dedicate myself 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 for me.

We ourselves can write our own stories.

96. The wisest man I have ever met in my life could not read or write.

Wisdom is not a matter of knowing how to read and write, it is about experience and the approach we give to life.

97. Physically we inhabit a space, but sentimentally a memory inhabits us.

Memories are part of our existence.

98. I am not worried about death, I will dissolve into nothing.

Death is a subject in which we lack preparation.

99. 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

You always have to try to do a little more.

100. Life looks like a straight line, but it is not.

Life has ups and downs.