The Hall of Uselessness Quotes

“Whenever people wonder “What is the truth?” usually it is because the truth is just under their noses—but it would be very inconvenient to acknowledge it.”
― Simon Leys, The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays

“The need to bring down to our own wretched level, to deface, to deride and debunk any splendour that is towering above us, is probably the saddest urge of human nature.”
― Simon Leys, The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays

“Had Don Quixote been simply and plainly mad, or had he indulged in a protracted game of self-deception and play-acting, we should not be talking of him now, Van Doren observes—“We are talking of him because we suspect that, in the end, he did become a knight.”
― Simon Leys, The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays

“One may say without exaggeration that Les Misérables triggered War and Peace.[23] Giants breed giants.”
― Simon Leys, The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays