The Cave

by José Saramago

life only gives you two days, and given the number of people who only get to live for a day and a half, and others even less, we can’t really complain.

let us say, softly, so that people don’t laugh at us, that while there’s life, there’s hope.

whatever happens tomorrow, we’ve got to work today, there’s no way of knowing if the tree you plant will also turn out to be the tree you hang yourself from,

then she might perhaps say, I recognize those tears that never fall but are absorbed back into the eyes, I recognize that joyful pain, that painful happiness, that being and not being, that having and not having, that wanting and not being able to act.

There are such moments in life, when, in order for heaven to open, it is necessary for a door to close.

And what then, he asked, looking at the mulberry tree, who replied, Then, my old friend, the future, as always.