L'Ordre du jour Quotes

“Don't believe for a minute that this all belongs to some distant past. These are not antediluvian monsters, creatures who pitifully faded away in the 1950s along with the poverty depicted by Rossellini, or were carted off with the ruins of Berlin. These names still exist. Their fortunes are enormous.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“e never fall twice into the same abyss. But we always fall the same way, in a mixture of ridicule and dread. We so desperately want not to fall that we grapple for a handhold, screaming. With their heels they crush our fingers, with their beaks they smash our teeth and peck out our eyes. The abyss is bordered by tall mansions. And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“Le traité de Versailles avait interdit aux Allemands la fabrication de chars, les entreprises allemandes produisirent donc par l’intermédiaire de sociétés écrans, à l’étranger. On voit que l’ingénierie financière sert depuis toujours aux manoeuvres les plus nocives.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“And now gentleman, pony up."
Cavalier though it was, the invitation was hardly novel to these men, who were used to kickbacks and backhanders. Corruption is an irreducible line item in the budget of large companies, and it goes by several names: lobbying fees, gifts, political contributions.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“It’s strange how the most dyed-in-the-wool tyrants still vaguely respect due process, as if they want to make it appear that they aren’t abusing procedure, even while riding roughshod over every convention. It’s as if power isn’t enough for them, and that they take special pleasure in forcing their enemies to perform, one last time and for their benefit, the same rituals that they are even then demolishing.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“They might not give in to the demands of justice, they might not yield to an insurgent populace, but they'll always fold before a bluff.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“jene Geschöpfe, die in den Fünfzigerjahren kläglich verschwunden sind, unter dem von Rossellini dargestellten Elend, in den Trümmern Berlins. Ihre Namen gibt es noch immer. Ihre Vermögen sind unermesslich. Ihre Gesellschaften sind zum Teil zu allmächtigen Konglomeraten zusammengewachsen.”
― Éric Vuillard, Die Tagesordnung

“Parteiabzeichens stolz das Bundesverdienstkreuz tragen wie in Frankreich die Ehrenlegion. Die Regimes ehren sie auf dieselbe”
― Éric Vuillard, Die Tagesordnung

“What’s astounding about this war is the remarkable triumph of bravado, from which we can infer one lesson: everyone is susceptible to a bluff. Even the strictest, most serious, most old-world souls: they might not give in to the demands of justice, they might not yield to an insurgent populace, but they’ll always fold before a bluff.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“A man with a narrow skull, weak mouth, and an empty gaze; the kind of person who, had he been born in a modest London suburb, would not have been given a second look.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“He consistently encouraged the Führer to pursue the most audacious courses of action, flattering his brutal, megalomaniacal tendencies. And so he had climbed the ladder of Nazi glory, the man Hitler called behind his back ‘the little champagne salesman’ – for prejudices are hard to shake, even for the most assiduous wreckers of the social order.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“In the grand scheme of business, partisan struggles didn’t amount to much. Politicians and industrialists routinely dealt with each other.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“In the grand scheme of business, partisan struggles didn't amount to much. Politicians and industrialists routinely dealt with each other.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“Et ce qui étonne dans cette guerre, c'est la réussite inouïe du culot, dont on doit retenir une chose: le monde cède au bluff. Même le monde le plus sérieux, le plus rigide, même le vieil ordre, s'il ne cède jamais à l'exigence de justice, s'il ne plie jamais devant le peuple qui s'insurge, plie devant le bluff.
(p118)”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“Si l'on soulève les haillons hideux de l'Histoire, on trouve cela: la hiérarchie contre légalité et l'ordre contre la liberté.
(p127)”
― Eric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“A motor is a sublime thing, a real miracle if you think about it.A bit of fuel, a spark [...] But in fact it's only simple on paper, and when it stops working, what a hassle! None of it makes any sense.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“Basta por vezes uma palavra para congelar uma frase, para nos mergulhar num qualquer devaneio;”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“No sorriso das jovens de Viena, nesse dia 12 de março de 1938, no meio dos gritos da multidão, no perfume fresco dos miosótis, no coração daquela alegria bizarra, de todo aquele entusiasmo, deve ter experimentado uma mágoa de trevas.”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“fim de sancionar a anexação da Áustria, organizou-se um referendo.”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“pode-se dizer que, até à entrada na guerra dos russos e dos americanos, as imagens que temos da guerra foram encenadas para toda a eternidade por Joseph Goebbels.”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“Tratado de Versalhes proibira aos alemães o fabrico de tanques, as empresas alemãs produziram-nos pois no estrangeiro, por intermédio de sociedades-sombra. Já por aqui se vê que a engenharia financeira tem servido desde sempre para as manobras mais nocivas.”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“«Quando discutes com um adversário, tenta pôr-te na pele dele.»”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“É tamanha a arte da narrativa que nada é inocente.”
― Éric Vuillard, A Ordem do Dia

“On ne tombe jamais deux fois dans le même abîme. Mais on tombe toujours de la même manière, dans un mélange de ridicule et d'effroi.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“Political maneuvering tramples facts.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“He said no, firmly, to the freedom of the Social Democrats. He said no, courageously, to freedom of the press...He said no to the right to strike, no to assemblies, no to the existence of parties other than his own...And so, once his little moment of hesitation had passed... Schuschnigg the intransigent, Mr. No, negation made dictator. turned toward Germany and, with a strangled voice, red snout and moist eye, uttered a feeble "yes.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“He said no, firmly, to the freedom of the Social Democrats. He said no, courageously,m to freedom of the press...He said no to the right to strike, no to assemblies, no to the existence of parties other than his own...And so, once his little moment of hesitation had passed... Schuschnigg the intransigent, Mr. No, negation made dictator. turned toward Germany and, with a strangled voice, red snout and moist eye, uttered a feeble "yes.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“There's nothing worse than resentful masses, militias with their armbands and faux-military insignias, young people caught up in false dilemmas, squandering their passions on awful causes.”
― Éric Vuillard, The Order of the Day

“The sun is a cold star.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour

“La vraie pensee est toujours secrete, depuis l'origine du monde. On pense par apocope, en apnee. Dessous, la vie s'ecoule comme une seve, lente, souterraine.”
― Éric Vuillard, L'Ordre du jour