Civilization is the mastery of violence, the triumph, constantly challenged, over the aggressive nature of the primate. For primates we have been and primates we shall remain, however often we learn to find joy in a camellia on moss. This… — 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 to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is he beverage of the wealthy and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share
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 breakfast and looking at the bouquet on the kitchen counter. I don't believe I was thinking about anything. And that could be why I noticed the movement; maybe if I'd been preoccupied with something else, if… — Muriel Barbery Copy Share
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
