Zeno's Conscience Quotes
"I venture this hypothesis to explain my youthful weakness, but without any firm conviction."
"To escape the chain of carbon compounds in which I had no faith, I returned to the law."
"Expecting no miracles, I still hurried to those sessions in the hope of persuading the doctor to forbid me to smoke."
"I believe the taste of a cigarette is more intense when it's your last."
"I remember the big, cool room where we children used to play; now, in these times when space has become so precious, it is subdivided into two parts."
"At that time a still-active religious feeling attenuated and softened the terrible misfortune."
"My father knew nothing of all this. He lived in perfect harmony with the way he was made, and I must believe that he never exerted any effort to improve."
"In short, compared with him I represented strength, and at times I think that the disappearance of his weakness, which had strengthened me, was something I felt as a reduction."
"He enjoyed, true, the reputation of being a clever businessman, but I knew that for many years his affairs had been handled by Olivi."
"I must say that, being alone with him so much, she often got it into her head that he was ill."
"They say this is a sign of insincerity, but now I know it’s a sign of illness."
"For me, religion is merely an ordinary phenomenon, something to be studied."
"A man doesn’t live all these years for nothing."
"I believe my spirit then lacked the affection that renders so many things comprehensible."
"The poor woman made every effort to quell her sobs."
"That mind of yours has already cost you so much that it’s only fair for it to reimburse you for a part of your losses!"
"True religion, indeed, is that which does not have to be avowed in order to provide the solace that at times – if only rarely – you cannot do without."
"Man would be a happier animal if he could [restrain one’s own mind from brooding on a subject that is too important]."
"I recalled that Greek philosopher who predicted regret both for those who married and for those who remained single."
"[In the midst of the attentions to my person], I thought of nothing else: In kissing Ada’s hand, had I done the right thing?"
"I loved Ada! I didn’t yet know if that was the right verb, and I continued my analysis."
"What’s definitive is always calm, because it is detached from time."
"I rushed to my study to reflect and to shut myself away."
"Ada remained separated from me, with all her family, and I had to live, doing nothing more."
"I made the heroic vow to correct my every fault in preparation for my conquest of Ada."
"Every threat of disaster at first terrifies me, but then is immediately forgotten in the greater certitude of being able to elude it."
"It's strange that all the parts of our body are able to ache in the same way."
"I have whole drawers full of medicines, and they are the only drawers that I keep tidy."
"This is a doubt that has accompanied me all through my life, and today I can believe that when love is accompanied by such doubt, it is true love."
"Guido’s company was downright terrible. He inquired with great curiosity about the story of my love for Augusta."
"In any event I don’t believe I’ve wasted my time."
"It seemed to me that where the moon passed, it dispelled and cleared."
"I was standing beside him, as he lay full length on the low wall, and I coldly studied in what way I should grip him, to be sure I was doing the thing properly."
"But a moment later I found a way of stinging him severely."
"I tried to make up for my enormity and I was fool enough to blame my tardiness on three different causes."
"Once married, you don’t talk anymore about love, and when you feel the need to speak of it, animal instincts quickly intervene and restore silence."
"Generally speaking, I too believed that when you study an art you must study it seriously."
"You can rest assured that I will always do my best to plead your cause with Copler and with everyone else."
"I held out my hand to Carla and then I noticed how pale she was."
"It looked like a joke, and in the end she laughed, too; but only when I left her."
"I felt small, guilty, and sick, and I felt the pain in my side as a sympathetic pain reverberating from the great wound in my conscience."
"A word in the night is like a shaft of sunshine."
"I was already at the door when I drew her to me."
"To reassure her, I said: 'I won’t eat it all; I’ll leave a piece for you, too.'"
"I got up, still accompanied by the best intentions."
"I realized this reading is not at all amusing."
"Carla burst into floods of tears and pulled away from me."
"Her confidence, the notion that she had definitively tamed me with that one kiss she had granted me, displeased me enormously."
"I felt no remorse because Carla had promised me all the kisses I wanted."
"I had little faith in that very wise determination."
"It would have been such a decisive act that then, in good faith, I could have marked that day’s date as a start toward honesty and health."
"I would have given her everything, because I am one of those people who pay their debts."
"We were to spend the evening at my father-in-law’s house."
"For a long time Alberta and I didn’t forget that I had touched a part of her body."
"I was awaiting Carla’s embrace with complete, immense desire."
"What I needed was to get away as soon as possible from that little room, containing no more than a cubic meter of air, which was also very hot."
"The profound darkness of the night was broken every so often by dazzling flashes."
"I have always enjoyed talking with people I don’t know. With them I feel healthy and secure."
"Who knows? Maybe we’re punished like that for sins we’re ignorant of!"
"A man of few words – according to what Carla told me, and I must believe her because a few months later he became talkative with her."
"It seemed impossible to me that this youth did not take advantage of this fine, easy prey."
"I was unwilling to accept a sacrifice from her."
"I felt very innocent because, to begin with, I hadn’t betrayed her by staying away from our conjugal domicile for a whole night."
"She wanted to part from me forever with a last kiss, but I would grant that kiss only in one form, otherwise I would have gone off filled with bitterness."
"I felt a certain heaviness in my stomach: obviously I was more compromised than ever."
"My spirit was so full of Carla that I felt remorse, and with Augusta I forced myself to maintain a foolish, stereotyped smile, which to her seemed genuine."
"My absence from the office had been provoked by Carla’s leaving me."
"It was a form of jealousy on my part, because Carmen appeared to me as Guido’s Carla."
"I now knew for certain that I had given up Carla for Augusta."
"In his carefree spirit, two women were no more than enough."
"I had married Augusta without love, and yet I had been unable to betray her without suffering."
"To be sure, I hadn’t yet entirely clarified my ideas, but I sensed them, and now I know them."
"I realized, in fact, that little work was being done in that office."
"Luciano said to me: 'Let’s hope that now that you’re here, we’ll start moving again.'"
"Guido hadn’t yet come in, and Carmen told me they had had quite a run of luck after I left."
"Guido showered me with kindnesses. I believe that in that month when I had left him alone, he had learned to value my company."
"When a woman gives you her hand, she is offering a great deal! I have always felt that."
"But I’m happy for Augusta that you’re so much better than I believed you."
"You’re the best man in our family, our mainstay, our hope."
"In the end, you married a man even more peculiar than I am, Ada!"
"The only admissible cry is that of the triumphant. The victor."
"I’m here to help you, not to stand in your way!"
"The dead are never sinners. Death had purified him."
"I was again not simply the sole man in the family, but the best."
"For with her, thanks to Basedow, everything was excessive."
"I learned that on the market there was another slight indication of a rise."
"She reached the little table at which I was seated, and leaned forward."
"What words could I say to her that would be the equivalent of taking her fraternally into my arms?"
"Ada was right to see my absence from the funeral as its final manifestation."
"I had already given me an example of considerate silence."
"I was to do whatever I thought was in Guido’s best interests."
"I am glad to be leaving my country. I feel as if I’m leaving my remorse behind!"