The Possibility Of An Island Quotes
"As a human brain contained several billion neurons, the number of combinations, and therefore of possible circuits, was staggering—it went way beyond, for example, the number of molecules in the universe."
"We, like humans, have not been delivered from our status as individuals, and the dull dereliction that accompanies it."
"The existence of the pussy was already in itself a blessing, I told myself, the simple fact that I could be in there, and feel good, already constituted sufficient reason for prolonging this dismal journey."
"All in all, I couldn’t laugh at anything anymore; I had reached the end of my career, that was clear."
"It was good, but still not enough to stop the rise in anxiety."
"Every day, a fresh bouquet was placed on his grave; I had never met the person who did this."
"What will be the number of the Elect? Will it be 1,729, the smallest number that can be broken down in two different ways to the sum of two cubes?"
"If you attack the world with sufficient violence, it ends up spitting its filthy lucre back at you; but never, never will it give you back joy."
"Intelligence permits the domination of the world; this can appear only within a social species, and through the medium of language."
"Nothing equals the sweetness of sleep when it happens in the presence of the loved one."
"DURING THE FIRST PART of your life, you only become aware of happiness once you have lost it."
"She gave life back to me. In her company, I lived moments of intense happiness."
"Something in me therefore knew, had always known, that I would end up finding love."
"The sun rises again, and reaches its zenith; however, it becomes colder and colder."
"The mental projections also disappear. There probably remain only a few minutes. I feel nothing but a very slight sadness."
"For the past months, not the slightest inscription. And nothing in the world worthy of inscription."
"Long before your presence, You were announced to me."
"Physical beauty plays here exactly the same role as nobility of blood in the Ancien Régime."
"Human existence resembles a theater performance which, begun by living actors, is ended by automatons dressed in the same costumes."
"Your only chance of survival, if you are sincerely smitten, lies in hiding this fact from the woman you love."
"The sexual life of man can be broken down into two phases: the first when he prematurely ejaculates, and the second when he can no longer manage to get a hard-on."
"The idea of any form of collective demand was generally foreign to her; it had always seemed obvious to her that, on the financial level as for all the essential questions of life, everyone had to look after themselves."
"She had a very honed technique, doubtless inspired by porn films—it was immediately obvious, for she had that gesture, which you learn quickly in films, of throwing back her hair to allow the boy, for want of a camera, to watch you in action."
"This is a human being! The container placed on this table has exactly the same chemical composition as an adult human being weighing seventy kilos."
"Why not directly manufacture an adult human being, from the necessary chemical elements and the schema provided by the DNA?"
"Individual history, in a word, creates the individual."
"The DNA contains not only the information necessary for the construction of the whole, but also that which pilots and subsequently commands the functioning of the organism."
"The human personality, which constitutes our individuality and our memory, forms gradually, throughout our lives."
"No birth for mortal things; there is no baleful end in death; there is only mixing and dissociation of the components of the mixture."
"We are entering a different era, where the passing of time no longer has the same meaning."
"The barrier of death is no more; that which was foretold has just been accomplished."
"Perhaps the closer prospect of immortality had given some substance to that notion of nonpossessive love that the prophet had preached throughout his life."
"What awaited me back in my own life had little chance of being as much fun, I could sense it more and more clearly."
"She was, however, aware of the events in Lanzarote and knew that I had been an eyewitness."
"I then understood why the éminences grises... feel at some point or another the need to ease their consciences, and to put down on paper what they know."
"It was simply necessary that the story be published only after my death, or at least that I would wait before publishing it."
"I understood life, in principle at least, I had even read some books."
"The marvelous finery and plumage... could easily result in the male animals being spotted and devoured by their predators."
"The sexual biochemistry of the neohumans... had remained almost identical."
"Nothingness turns to nothing." - Martin Heidegger
"I had left my coitus cream at the Lutétia, and this was my first mistake; I came much too quickly."
"I found it very difficult to take part in the conversation."
"She still went out clubbing a lot, I knew, and sometimes spent the entire night dancing; but she never asked me to accompany her."
"The fall of Islam in the West curiously echoes that, a few decades earlier, of Communism."
"The truth, in Daniel1's time, began to be unearthed; it became more and more clear, and more and more difficult to hide, that the true goals of men... were of an exclusively sexual nature."
"If the abandonment of machismo had effectively made men unhappy, it had not actually made women happy."
"The first fundamental ceremony to mark the conversion of each new follower—the taking of a DNA sample—was accompanied by the signing of a document."
"The idea of immortality had basically never been abandoned by man."
"For Elohimism it was a worrying phenomenon, because... a religion considerably increases its attractiveness as soon as it is able to give the impression of offering in the here and now a life that is fuller, richer, more exalting, and more joyful."
"It is true that times had changed, and that Elohimism marched in many respects behind consumer capitalism."
"I sensed, in the space of a few minutes, that a sort of emptiness was settling inside me; but this was a predictable, anticipated emptiness."
"Not only had she died painlessly, but she had also probably died joyfully."
"The end of any life amounts more or less to a tidying up; you no longer feel the urge to throw yourself into a new project, you are content just to dispatch day-to-day matters."
"Youth was the time for happiness, its only season; young people, leading a lazy, carefree life, partially occupied by scarcely absorbing studies, were able to devote themselves unlimitedly to the liberated exultation of their bodies."
"Death, alas! consoles and brings to life; The end of it all, the solitary hope."
"All through the storm, the frost, and the snow, Death on our black horizon pulses clear."
"My life, my life, my very old one, My first badly healed desire, My first crippled love, You had to return."
"Entered into complete dependency, I know the trembling of being, The hesitation to disappear, Sunlight upon the forest’s edge."
"There exists in the midst of time The possibility of an island."
"The thick walls kept the heat in well, and I decided to set up camp in the main hall."
"Nothing now remained of those literary and artistic productions of which mankind had been so proud."
"The sole fact of existing is already a misfortune."
"I understood the goal she was trying to reach: I understood, also, why this goal would never be reached."
"The savages, having abandoned the village, had probably retreated to its shores."
"It is the desire and pursuit of this whole that is called love."
"Any destruction of an organic form of life, of whatever kind, was a step toward the accomplishment of moral law."
"I had now entered a peaceful space from which only the lethal process would separate me."
"The idea that things could have been different did not cross my mind."