D. Simone Quotes

The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.

All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.

The ideal of happiness has always taken material form in the house, whether cottage or castle; it stands for permanence and separation from the world.

When an individual (or a group of individuals) is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he is inferior.

We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them.

People seem to think that if you keep your head empty you automatically fill your balls.

Workers need poetry more than bread. They need that their life should be a poem. They need some light from eternity. Religion alone can be the source of such poetry.

You could not be born at a better period than the present, when we have lost everything.

immortality is a terrible curse.

I never thought of myself as being in the avant-garde. I said what I had to say, as I was able to say it.

If women really did have complete equality with men, society would be completely overturned.

Each person has his or her own very particular history and after all, the unconscious is the most secret part of ourselves.

The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded upon the spirituality of work.

There is only one fault, only one: our inability to feed upon light.

Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift.

The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil.

Writing ... is a profession that can only be learned by writing.

Words have to murder reality before they can hold it captive.

We should do only those righteous actions which we cannot stop ourselves from doing.

I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.

A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.

Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure.

I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I'll leave it to them.

I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs.

The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.

Many times I feel different like a different person.

You know you can do more, but everyone expects you to quit.

Being a bad writer a thousand times first.

Some people are worried about the future of comics and some people are busy building it. That latter group are my heroes.

A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.

When a contradiction is impossible to resolve except by a lie, then we know that it is really a door.

Attachment is a manufacturer of illusion and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.

Today it is not nearly enough to be a saint, but we must have the saintliness demanded by the present moment, a new saintliness, itself also without precedent.

[People saying to me] "You look taller on TV." I get that all the time.

Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses.

When you touch the pain of the world as real, there is a solidarity, an engagement with the Gospel, a living faith that blossoms forth.

A beautiful woman looking at her image in the mirror may very well believe the image is herself. An ugly woman knows it is not.

There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.

The role of a retired person is no longer to possess one.

Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death.

The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another.

It's not a very big step from contentment to complacency.

He who has not God in himself cannot feel His absence.

There is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.

‎A day in which I don't write leaves a taste of ashes.

We all have our strengths and our failings.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

When Goya was 80 he drew an ancient man propped on two sticks, with a great mass of white hair and beard all over his face, and the inscription, "I am still learning."