“I am a complete slave to vocabulary, I ought to have named my cat Roget.” — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language. — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“humans live in a world where it’s words and not deeds that have power, where the ultimate skill is mastery of language.” — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain Beauty. When you speak, or read, or write, you can tell if… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“What I really devoured . . . was the truculence of my hosts' language: the syntax may have been brutally sloppy, but… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“And on the way home I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.” — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work.” — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work. Language and usage evolve… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“Words: repositories for singular realities which they then transform into moments in an anthology, magicians that change the face of reality by… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; those who can't teach, teach the teachers; and those who can't teach the teachers go into… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
What is writing, no matter how lavish the pieces, if it says nothing of the truth, cares little for the heart, and is merely… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
Live or die: mere consequences of what you have built. What matters is building well. So here we are I've assigned myself a new… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“A terroir only exists by virtue of one's childhood mythology . . . we have invented these words of tradition rooted deep in the… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“The tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accession to simple,authentic and refined sensations, a license given… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
As always, I am saved by the inability of living creatures to believe anything that might cause the walls of their little mental assumptions… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
“I wonder if I am not turning into a contemplative . . . But those roses . They were something else. I was having… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
To be poor, ugly and, moreover, intelligent condemns one in our society to a dark and disillusioned life...to beauty all is forgiven. — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
I know that they're all unhappy because nobody loves the right person the way they should and because they don't understand that it's really… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
We never look beyond our assumptions and what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others; we just meet ourselves. — Muriel Barbery Copy Share Image
