« All Life Quotes · Julian Barnes's Page
Life Quotes by Julian Barnes
- When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.
- Early in life, the world divides crudely into those who have had sex and those who haven't. Later, into those who have known love, and…
- Do not imagine that Art is something which is designed to give gentle uplift and self-confidence . Art is not a brassiere. At least, not…
- Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't.
- In life, every ending is just the start of another story.
- But life never lets you go, does it? You can't put down life the way you put down a book.
- Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. And for this serious task of imaginative discovery and self-discovery, there is and remains one perfect symbol:…
- The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.
- (on grief) And you do come out of it, that’s true. After a year, after five. But you don’t come out of it like a…
- Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is there left but…
- Life … is a bit like reading. … If all your responses to a book have already been duplicated and expanded upon by a professional…
- When you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to die without regret.…
- When I was still quite young I had a complete presentiment of life. It was like the nauseating smell of cooking escaping from a ventilator:…
- Memory is identity....You are what you have done; what you have done is in your memory; what you remember defines who you are; when you…
- He thought of trying to explain something he had recently noticed about himself: that if anyone insulted him, or one of his friends, he didn't…
- How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the…
- But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life’s business.
- When you're young - when I was young - you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in books. You want…
- Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder.…
- This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.
- Had my life increased, or merely added to itself? There had been addition and subtraction in my life, but how much multiplication?
- And that's a life, isn't it? Some achievements and some disappointments. It's been interesting to me, though I wouldn't complain or be amazed if others…
- Discovering, for example, that as witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty, as to what you are or have…
- I remember laughing with relief that the same old adolescent boredom goes on from generation to generation. ...the words took me back to my own…
- Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes,…
More Ways to Read Life Quotes by Julian Barnes
More Life Quotes
- Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. — Hannah Arendt
- Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life. — Hannah Arendt
- We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for… — Hannah Arendt
- I do think the heart can balance out the mind, if your heart is in a good place it can give you… — Alexis Arguello
- I find that it's hard to fully examine one's life and not have faith be part of the discussion. — J. J. Abrams
- Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life. — Aristophanes
- Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. — Aristotle
- Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. — Aristotle
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle
- Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those… — Aristotle
- Happiness depends upon ourselves. — Aristotle
- I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. — Aristotle