Thangible > Thangible's Quotes

“Granny and Elsa used to watch the evening news together. Now and then Elsa would ask Granny why grown-ups were always doing such idiotic things to each other. Granny usually answered that it was because grown-ups were generally people, and people are generally shits. Elsa countered that grown-ups were also responsible for a lot of good things in between all the idiocy – space exploration, the UN, vaccines and cheese slicers, for instance. Granny then said the real trick of life was that almost no one is entirely a shit and almost no one is entirely not a shit. The hard part of life is keeping as much on the ‘not-a-shit’ side as one can.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises

“People could behave how they liked, but Allan considered that in general it was quite unnecessary to be grumpy if you had the chance not to.”
― Jonas Jonasson, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

“One day at a time. One dream at a time. And one could say it’s right and one could say it’s wrong. And probably both would be right. Because life is both complicated and simple. Which is why there are cookies.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“Things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be.”
― Jonas Jonasson, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

“Because not all monsters were monsters in the beginning. Some are monsters born of sorrow.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises

“Death’s greatest power is not that it can make people die, but that it can make people want to stop living.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“People in the real world always say, when something terrible happens, that the sadness and loss and aching pain of the heart will “lessen as time passes,” but it isn’t true. Sorrow and loss are constant, but if we all had to go through our whole lives carrying them the whole time, we wouldn’t be able to stand it. The sadness would paralyze us. So in the end we just pack it into bags and find somewhere to leave it.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“if you hate the one who hates, you could risk becoming like the one you hate.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“It’s hard to help those who don’t want to help themselves.”

“Someone who wants to help himself is possibly not the one who most needs help from others,” Elsa objects.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people you left behind want to stop living.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“Because improbable tragedies create improbable superheroes.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“the best stories are never completely realistic and never entirely made-up.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

“.” the Noween bellows with furious force: “Nooo! IT HAS TO BE DONE NOOOW!” The Noween hates children, because children refuse to accept the Noween’s lie that time is linear. Children know that time is just an emotion, so “now” is a meaningless word to them, just as it was for Granny. George used to say that Granny wasn’t a time-optimist, she was a time-atheist, and the only religion she believed in was Do-It-Later-Buddhism. The Noween brought the fears to the Land-of-Almost-Awake to catch children, because when a Noween gets hold of a child it engulfs the child’s future, leaving the victim helpless where it is, facing an entire life of eating now and sleeping now and tidying up right away. Never again can the child postpone something boring till later and do something fun in the meantime. All that’s left is now. A fate far worse than death,”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“You'd quickly run out of people if you had to disqualify all those who at some point have been shits. Granny then said the real trick of life was that almost no one is entirely a shit and almost no one is entirely not a shit. The hard part of life is keeping as much on the not-a-shit side as one can.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“We want to be loved,’ ” quotes Britt-Marie. “ ‘Failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised. At all costs we want to stir up some sort of feeling in others. The soul abhors a vacuum. At all costs it longs for contact.’ ”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“One morning you wake up with more life behind you than in front of you, not being able to understand how it’s happened.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie var här

“At a certain age almost all the questions a person asks him or herself are really just about one thing: how should you live your life?”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“A human being, any human being at all, has so perishingly few chances to stay right there, to let go of time and fall into the moment. And to love someone without measure, explode with passion... A few times when we are children, maybe, for those of us who are allowed to be... But after that? How many breaths are we allowed to take beyond the confines of ourselves? How many pure emotions make us cheer out loud without a sense of shame? How many chances do we get to be blessed by amnesia? All passion is childish, it's banal and naive, it's nothing we learn, it's instinctive, and so it overwhelms us... Overturns us... It bears us away in a flood... All other emotions belong to the earth, but passion inhabits the universe. That is the reason why passion is worth something. Not for what it gives us, but for what it demands that we risk - our dignity, the puzzlement of others in their condescending shaking heads...”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“A human being may not choose her circumstances, but she does choose her actions”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“If you can be heard then you exist.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie var här

“It’s difficult to know when love blooms; suddenly one day you wake up and it’s in full flower. It works the same way when it wilts—one day it is just too late.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“Because if we don’t forgive those we love, then what is left? What is love if it’s not loving our lovers even when they don’t deserve it?”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“All marriages have their bad sides, because people have weaknesses. If you live with another human being you learn to handle these weaknesses in a variety of ways. For instance, you might take the view that weaknesses are a bit like heavy pieces of furniture, and based on this you must learn to clean around them. To maintain the illusion.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie var här

“Soccer forces life to move on. There’s always a new match. A new season. There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie var här

“All passion is childish. It's banal and naive. It's nothing we learn; it's instinctive, and so it overwhelms us. Overturns us. It bears us away in a flood. All other emotions belong to earth, but passion inhabits the universe.
That is the reason why passion is worth something, not for what it gives us but for what it demands we risk. Our dignity. The puzzlement of others and their condescending, shaking heads”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“All other emotions belong to the earth, but passion inhabits the universe.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“Nghệ thuật không là ánh trăng lừa dối, không nên là ánh trăng lừa dối! Nghệ thuật có thể chỉ là tiếng đau khổ kia, thoát ra từ những kiếp người lầm than.
~ 'Trăng Sáng”
― Nam Cao

“Một người đau chân có lúc nào quên được cái chân đau của mình để nghĩ đến một cái gì khác đâu? Khi người ta khổ quá thì người ta chẳng còn nghĩ gì đến ai được nữa. Cái bản tính tốt của người ta bị những nỗi lo lắng, buồn đau ích kỷ che lấp mất...”
― Nam Cao

“Chao ôi! Ðối với những người ở quanh ta, nếu ta không cố tìm mà hiểu họ, thì ta chỉ thấy họ gàn dở, ngu ngốc, bần tiện, xấu xa, bỉ ối... toàn những cớ để cho ta tàn nhẫn; không bao giờ ta thấy họ là những người đáng thương; không bao giờ ta thương”
― Nam Cao