Thomas Bernhard Quotes

Quotes about:

• It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Sad, Sick, Novelists

  Thomas Bernhard (2010). “Gargoyles: A Novel”, p.13, Vintage

  66 Copy quote

• The art we need is the art of bearing the unbearable.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Art, Philosophical, Needs

  30 Copy quote

• You've always lived a life of pretense, not a real life-- a simulated existence, not a genuine existence. Everything about you, everything you are, has always been pretense, never genuine, never real.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Real, Genuine, Existence

  Thomas Bernhard (2011). “Woodcutters”, p.41, Faber & Faber

  31 Copy quote

• Instead of committing suicide, people go to work.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Inspirational, Suicide, People

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Correction: A Novel”, p.244, Vintage

  39 Copy quote

• everything is ridiculous if one thinks of death

  Thomas Bernhard

  Thinking, Ridiculous, Critical Thinking

  Thomas Bernhard (2010). “The Loser: A Novel”, p.189, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Arrogance is an utterly appropriate weapon to use against a hostile world, a world in which arrogance is feared and respected, even if, like mine, it's only feigned.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Arrogance, Use, World

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Extinction: A Novel”, p.219, Vintage

  23 Copy quote

• On the other hand, whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do ,and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it's the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we're finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it's better to die having made the journey we've been longing for than to be stifled by our longing.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Journey, Worry, Goes On

  "Concrete".

  35 Copy quote

• We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Character, People, Boring

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Extinction: A Novel”, p.115, Vintage

  20 Copy quote

• The only friends I have are the dead who have bequeathed their writings to me — I have no others.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Writing

  "Concrete".

  27 Copy quote

• After all, there is nothing but failure.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Anime

  Thomas Bernhard (1991). “Yes”, p.35, University of Chicago Press

  21 Copy quote

• We Can Only Exist By Taking Our Minds Off The Fact That We Exist

  Thomas Bernhard

  Mind, Facts

  14 Copy quote

• People keep a dog and are ruled by this dog, and even Schopenhauer was ruled in the end not by his head, but by his dog. This fact is more depressing than any other.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Dog, Depressing, People

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Concrete”, p.30, Faber & Faber

  26 Copy quote

• What can you do. You get a name, you're called 'Thomas Bernhard', and it stays that way for the rest of your life. And if at some point you go for a walk in the woods, and someone takes a photo of you, then for the next eighty years you're always walking in the woods. There's nothing you can do about it.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Years, Names, Woods

  28 Copy quote

• Nothing but disaster follows from applause.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Disaster, Applause

  7 Copy quote

• We must allow ourselves to think, we must dare to think, even though we fail. It is in the nature of things that we always fail, because we suddenly find it impossible to order our thoughts, because the process of thinking requires us to consider every thought there is, every possible thought. Fundamentally we have always failed, like all the others, whoever they were, even the greatest minds. At some point, they suddenly failed and their system collapsed, as is proved by their writings, which we admire because they venture farthest into failure. To think is to fail, I thought.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Writing, Thinking, Order

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Extinction: A Novel”, p.187, Vintage

  15 Copy quote

• Everything is what it is, that's all. If we keep attaching meanings and mysteries to everything we perceive, everything we see that is, and to everything that goes on inside us, we are bound to go crazy sooner or later, I thought.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Crazy, Goes On, Mystery

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Correction: A Novel”, p.125, Vintage

  26 Copy quote

• I did not want to be anything, and naturally I did not want to turn myself into a mere profession: all I ever wanted was to be myself.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Want, Turns, Profession

  8 Copy quote

• All my life I have had the utmost admiration for suicides. I have always considered them superior to me in every way.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Suicide, Way, Admiration

  "Munich Airport by Greg Baxter review - good, old-fashioned existential angst" by Edward Docx, www.theguardian.com. July 9, 2014.

  24 Copy quote

• All of living is nothing but a fervid attempt to move closer together.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Moving, Together

  Thomas Bernhard (2010). “Gargoyles: A Novel”, p.40, Vintage

  19 Copy quote

• Women were like rivers, their banks were unreachable, the night often rang with the cries of the drowned.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Night, Rivers, Inspiring Love

  20 Copy quote

• In theory we understand people, but in practice we can't put up with them, I thought, deal with them for the most part reluctantly and always treat them from our point of view. We should observe and treat people not from our point of view but from all angles, I thought, associate with them in such a way that we can say we associate with them so to speak in a completely unbiased way, which however isn't possible, since we actually are always biased against everybody.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Practice, Views, People

  10 Copy quote

• We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Courage, Adversity, Faces

  8 Copy quote

• You are never truly together with one you love until the person in question is dead and actually inside you.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Together, One You Love, Persons

  Thomas Bernhard (2010). “Gargoyles: A Novel”, p.19, Vintage

  20 Copy quote

• Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Inspirational, Writing, Too Late

  Thomas Bernhard (2013). “Concrete”, p.81, Faber & Faber

  30 Copy quote

• ...He was just scraps of words and dislocated phrases.

  Thomas Bernhard

  Phrases, Scrap

  8 Copy quote

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