Muriel Barbery

“since destiny always rings three times...”

— Muriel Barbery

“...love musn't be a means, it must be an end.”

— Muriel Barbery

“Eternity: for all its invisibility, we gaze at it.”

— Muriel Barbery

“Behold the man I also know how to be.”

— Muriel Barbery

I am going to die, but that is of no importance.

— Muriel Barbery

Because art is life, playing to other rhythms.

— Muriel Barbery

Art is emotion without desire.

— Muriel Barbery

“And I wonder how well I myself can see.”

— Muriel Barbery

Don't let the cat out or the concierge in: this is the first principle of socialist ladies.

— Muriel Barbery

“I don't give a damn about where I happen to be, provided nothing stops me from going into my mind.”

— Muriel Barbery

“I had a brief glimpse of a frail, mature man carrying a ravaged child in his arms...”

— Muriel Barbery

“Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work.”

— Muriel Barbery

I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.

— Muriel Barbery

“Maybe that's what being alive is about: so we can track down those movments that are dying.”

— Muriel Barbery

“I understood that I was suffering because I couldn't make anyone else around me feel better.”

— Muriel Barbery

“I am an intellectual (who makes fun of other intellectuals).”

— Muriel Barbery

“Every day I tell myself that my sister cannot possibly sink any further into the slough of disgrace and, every day, I…

— Muriel Barbery

“I also wonder fearfully what will happen when the only friend I have ever had, the only one who knows everything without…

— Muriel Barbery

“I'd seen the older children in class look into books for invisible traces, as if they were driven by the same force…

— Muriel Barbery

Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you…

— Muriel Barbery

“But enough of phenomenology; it is nothing more than the solitary, endless monologue of consciousness, a hard-core autism that no real cat…

— Muriel Barbery

“Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that…

— Muriel Barbery

“The raw tomato, devoured in the garden when freshly picked, is a horn of abundance of simple sensations, a radiating rush in…

— Muriel Barbery

I find this a fascinating phenomenon: the ability we have to manipulate ourselves so that the foundation of our beliefs is never…

— Muriel Barbery

“This is eminently true of many happy moments in life. Freed from the demands of decision and intention, adrift on some inner…

— Muriel Barbery

Live or die: mere consequences of what you have built. What matters is building well. So here we are I've assigned myself…

— Muriel Barbery

...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a…

— Muriel Barbery

“A terroir only exists by virtue of one's childhood mythology . . . we have invented these words of tradition rooted deep…

— Muriel Barbery

For the first time in my life I understood the meaning of the word 'never'. And it's really awful. You say the…

— Muriel Barbery

Most people, when they move, well they just move depending on whatever's around them. At this very moment, as I am writing,…

— Muriel Barbery

“No one seems to have thought of the fact that life is absurd, being a brilliant success has no greater value than…

— Muriel Barbery

“It's all well and good to have profound thoughts on a regular basis, but I think it's not enough. Well, I mean:…

— Muriel Barbery

“There are times, however, when life becomes a phantom comedy. As if aroused from a dream, we watch ourselves in action and,…

— Muriel Barbery

“The gifts of fate come with a price. For those who have been favored by life’s indulgence, rigorous respect in matters of…

— Muriel Barbery

...This is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond...We never look beyond our assumptions…

— Muriel Barbery

“[H]umans live in a world where it's words and not deeds that have power, where the ultimate skill is mastery of language.…

— Muriel Barbery

“Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work. Language and usage evolve…

— Muriel Barbery

“In our world, that's the way you live your grown-up life: you must constantly rebuild your identity as an adult, the way…

— Muriel Barbery

“It's one of my profound thoughts, but it came from another profound thought. It was one of Papa's guests, at the dinner…

— Muriel Barbery

“If you dread tomorrow it's because you don't know how to build the present, and when you don't know how to build…

— Muriel Barbery