José Saramago was a Portuguese novelist and the 1998 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature whose imaginative parables, distinctive punctuation-free prose style, and humanistic moral vision challenged dogma and explored human compassion.
Literature
Nobel Laureate Portuguese Novelist, Essayist, and Playwright
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Honor the extraordinary legacy of José Saramago on November 16 with these curated quotes, philosophical reflections, and heartfelt tributes celebrating their monumental impact on Nobel Laureate Portuguese Novelist, Essayist, and Playwright.
“I think we are blind, blind people who can see, but do not see.”
“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”
“If you cannot understand the cause of things, at least try to feel their pain.”
“Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions, decisions make us.”
“We are the memory we have and the responsibility we assume. Without memory we do not exist, without responsibility perhaps we do not deserve to exist.”
“Words that come from the heart are never spoken, they are buried in the throat and can only be read in one's eyes.”
“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”
“You have to leave the island to see the island. We can't see ourselves unless we get out of ourselves.”
“The only defense against death is art.”
“Human beings are perhaps the only creatures capable of knowing they will die, yet behaving as though they were immortal.”
Nobel Laureate Portuguese Novelist, Essayist, and Playwright
