"Of course, living is another way of killing oneself: its drawback is that it takes so horribly long."

Imre Kertész Literature See all quotes by Imre Kertész →

React to this quote

More by Imre Kertész

“You just sit here and tolerate it, the same way everything in this country is tolerated. Every deception, every lie, every bullet in the brains. Just as you are already tolerating bullets in the brains that will be implemented only after the bullet is put in your brains.”

“Man, when reduced to nothing, or in other words a survivor, is not tragic but comic, because he has no fate.”

“Man is always a little at fault, that’s all.”

“At any rate I found myself writing because I had to write, although I didn’t know why.”

“Anyone who wants something else is Jewish.”

“I am sick of atrocities, though these are now the natural order of our world. And I would still like to act!”

Resonant Thoughts

"Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like J…"

— John Piper

Religion1946

#life

"Dreams are the fuel for your success. Without them there can never be any meaningful and lasting success in your life. Like a car engine without high-quality fuel you risk living a life that never qui…"

— Nigel Cumberland

personal development1967

#life

"We are so lonely in life that we must ask ourselves if the loneliness of dying is not a symbol of our human existence."

— Emil Cioran

Philosophy1911–1995

#life

"But you are not overlooked by yourself, are you? nor by the other flies that wheel with you in your mazy circlings? I know how precious you are to yourself, though you cannot tell me in words, by the …"

— J. Howard Moore

Philosophy1862–1916

#life