Muriel Barbery Quotes

Quotes about:

Art Assumption Cats Children Dying Emotions Eternity

There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature.

Muriel Barbery

Tree, Feelings, Humanity

46 Copy quote
People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.

Muriel Barbery

Life, Stars, Children

Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.15, Gallic Books

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Beautiful things should belong to beautiful souls.

Muriel Barbery

Beautiful, Soul, Should

Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.89, Gallic Books

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. . . maybe that's what life's all about: there's a lof of despair, but also the odd moments of beauty, where time is no longer the same . . . [like] something suspended . . . an elsewhere . . . an always within a never. Yes, that's is, an always within a never.

Muriel Barbery

Despair, Odd, Moments

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...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people.

Muriel Barbery

Inspirational, Real, People

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

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Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside she is covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary--and terrible elegant.

Muriel Barbery

Real, Simple, Feelings

76 Copy quote
Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

Muriel Barbery

Thinking, Way, Grammar

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

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When something is bothering me, I seek refuge. No need to travel far; a trip to the realm of literary memory will suffice. For where can one find more noble distraction, more entertaining company, more delightful enchantment than in literature?

Muriel Barbery

Memories, Enchantment, Needs

Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.96, Gallic Books

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

Muriel Barbery

Enchantment, Spirit, Language

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

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With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of Art, I don't see much else that can nurture human life.

Muriel Barbery

Art, Friendship Love, Human Life

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

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When someone that you love dies..it's like fireworks suddenly burning out in the sky and everything going black.

Muriel Barbery

Sky, Black, Burning

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When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?

Muriel Barbery

Heart, Greatness, Jewels

7 Copy quote
To beauty, all is forgiven, even vulgarity. Intelligence no longer seems an adequate compensation for things.

Muriel Barbery

Adequate, Forgiven, Vulgarity

Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.34, Gallic Books

4 Copy quote
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 obligation. I'm going to stop undoing, deconstructing, I'm going to start building. What matters is what you are doing when you die... I want to be building.

Muriel Barbery

What Matters, Want, Building

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

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The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.

Muriel Barbery

Real, Love You, Leaving

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We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees, but we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.

Muriel Barbery

Fate, Thinking, Honey

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If you have but one friend, make sure you choose her well.

Muriel Barbery

Inspiring, Friends, Wells

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, 2008.

8 Copy quote
Beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you see both their beauty and their death. ...Does this mean that this is how we must live our lives? Constantly poised between beauty and death, between movement and its disappearance? Maybe that’s what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying.

Muriel Barbery

Mean, Track, Dying

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..if you dread tomorrow, it's because you don't know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it's a lost cause anyway because tomorrow always ends up becoming today, don't you see?

Muriel Barbery

Today, Causes, Becoming

7 Copy quote
Art is emotion without desire.

Muriel Barbery

Art, Desire, Emotion

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, 2006.

4 Copy quote
...This is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. [...] We never look beyond our assumptions and, what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others; we just meet ourselves. We don't recognize each other because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were to become aware of the fact that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy. [...] As for me, I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone.

Muriel Barbery

Crazy, Fate, Mirrors

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, books.google.ru. September, 2 2013.

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...what I dread more than anything else in this life is noise...silence helps you to go inward..anyone who is interested in something more than just life outside actually needs silence.

Muriel Barbery

Silence, Needs, Inward

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Colombe Josse is the older Jesse daughter. Colombe Jesse is also a sort of tall blonde leek who dresses like a penniless Bohemian. If there is one thing I despise, it is the perverse affectation of rich people who go around dressing as if they were poor, in second-hand clothes, ill-fitting gray bonnets, socks full of holes, and flowered shirts under threadbare sweaters. Not only is it ugly, it is also insulting: nothing is more despicable than a rich man's scorn for a poor man's longing.

Muriel Barbery

Daughter, Gratitude, Men

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How to measure a life's worth? The important thing, said Paloma one day, is not the fact of dying, it is what you are doing in the moment of your death.

Muriel Barbery

Important, Dying, One Day

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

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'Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is' is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realize that's not true, it's too late.

Muriel Barbery

Lying, Believe, Adults

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2008.

12 Copy quote

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Born: May 28, 1969
Occupation: Novelist
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