Maurice Blanchot Quotes

Memory is the happiness of being alone.

What I dislike least in my former self are the moments of prayer.

He thought about himself and to the young that always brings sadness.

I look at the past and I see myself.

If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death Perhaps the world can teach us as when everything seems dead but later proves to be alive.

Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before you as a complete thing, I have to recall things gone far, gone deep, sunk into this life or that and become part of it; dreams, too, things surrounding me, and the inmates, those old half-articulate ghosts who keep up their hauntings by day and night... shadows of people one might have been; unborn selves.

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

You can't move forward until you look back.

The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.

I couldn’t help but think about school and everything else ending. I liked standing just outside the couches and watching them—it was a kind of sad I didn’t mind, and so I just listened, letting all the happiness and the sadness of this ending swirl around in me, each sharpening the other. For the longest time, it felt kind of like my chest was cracking open, but not precisely in an unpleasant way.

People are surprised at how down-to-earth I am. I like to stay home on Friday nights and listen to 'The Art of Happiness' by the Dalai Lama.

To travel is to take a journey into yourself.

All confessions are Odysseys.

That's a part of me going back to what I used to do.

I will never forget my beautiful days with you in Shanklin, they are certainly the most pleasant ones of my life. Look, I have tears in my eyes just to think about it. I am furious to be here, it is the end of happiness for a whole year.

From about 5 years old on, I was very contemplative and started to become constantly filled with nostalgia for the present moment and the feeling that it's always fleeting.

Maybe one day I can have a reunion with myself.

The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.

I like to read my diary occasionally to remind myself what a miserable, alienated old sod I used to be.

I was a slightly melancholy child and I think films were a way of escaping for me.

I caught up on a lot of just domestic normal everyday stuff, and grew up a lot, and went to therapy, and did a lot of contemplating and figuring things out. I needed to just strip everything away and figure out who I am and get to know myself, as cheesy as that sounds.

My goal is to get quieter as I get older.

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.

I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad.