Selected Crônicas Quotes

“Could it be that the person who sees most, feels and suffers most?”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“Perhaps love is to give one’s own solitude to others? For it is the very last thing we have to offer.

from "The Gift”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“But after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more difficult in this world than to surrender completely. This is one of man's greatest sorrows.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“Earth showed her bounty by separating us into persons – we have repaid her by being nothing other than earth.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“One thing I do know: love, however violent, is pure.
And that is how I have come to discover that I am not pure.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“In a state of grace, one sometimes perceives the deep beauty, hitherto unattainable, of another person. And everything acquires a kind of halo which is not imaginary: it comes from the splendor of the almost mathematical light emanating from people and things. One starts to feel that everything in existence - whether people or things - breathes and exhales the subtle light of energy. The world's truth is impalpable.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“Those who smoke, smoke. Those who do not, do not. But they all smoke.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“I said to a friend:
-- Like has always asked too much of me.
She replied:
-- But don't forget that you also ask too much of life.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“And the churches are full of those who fear God's wrath. And those who plead for mercy which is the opposite of wrath.
No, no, I do not feel sorry for those who die of hunger. What I feel is rage. And I see no harm in stealing to eat.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“And just because I have done a little writing, why do people assume I must go on being a writer? I warned my children that I had woken up in a rage and advised them to ignore me. But I am in no mood to ignore anything. I should like to do something once and for all to burst this straining tendon which sustains my heart. And what about those who give up? I know a woman who gave up. And she seems quite contented: her way of coping with life is to keep herself occupied. But no occupation satisfies her. And nothing I have ever done satisfies me. Anything I did with love ended up in pieces. I did not even know how to love, not even how to love.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas

“I was no longer a little girl with a book: I was a woman with her lover.”
― Clarice Lispector, Selected Crônicas