Man, when reduced to nothing, or in other words, a survivor, is not tragic but comic, because he has no fate. On the other hand, he lives with an awareness of tragic fate. This is a paradox.
Imre Kertesz
Related The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a br... RALPH WALDO EMERSON A writer has a difficult fate, but a Jewish writer has an especially difficult fate. His soul is tor... S. ANSKY Man blames fate for other accidents, but feels personally responsible when he makes a hole in one CHARLES DICKENS Man blames fate for other accidents, but feels personally responsible when he makes a hole-in-one! UNKNOWN It?s a tragic, tragic story. One evening has changed so many lives. He has tried to change things ar... GERALD MUELLER Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little ... FRANZ KAFKA A man, when he wishes, is the master of his fate. JOSE FERRER The constant clamor of the booths and barkers served as an exhausting reminder that he had to choose... DEXTER PALMER Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that h... JEAN-PAUL SARTRE A man must know his destiny
if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, tw... GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, t... GEORGE S. PATTON JR. A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, t... GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we s... ERICH FROMM No center has access to it. This is a tragic problem, because the results are very promising and the... DR. ALDO T. IACONO Balsa seemed invincible, endowed with powers no other warrior could match, but in her profile he cou... NAHOKO UEHASHI All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal, but with a near infinite ... ROBERT S. MCNAMARA For a truly religious man nothing is tragic. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN My client's been in jail. My client has not interfered with anyone, he has not participated nor had ... DAVID MEJIA ...even the richest personality is nothing before he has chosen himself, and on the other hand even ... SøREN KIERKEGAARD 'Magneto' is a tragic figure. He is a man who has stared right into the face of ultimate evi... CULLEN BUNN 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give... JAMES C. DOBSON Man is the bridge of good as much as evil. He hurts and he loves. He divides and he unites. He destr... DANNY CASTILLONES SILLADA Here is your great soul—the man who has given himself over to Fate; on the other hand, that man is... SENECA Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs n... LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA The paradoxical and tragic situation of man is that his conscience is weakest when he needs it most ERICH FROMM Fate had a hand in it - luck had nothing to do with it. TRUTH DEVOUR We have no reason to believe that this was anything other than a tragic accident, LAURA WALKER The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd.... ALBERT CAMUS Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all held in a sing... HOMER Man blames fate for other accidents but feels personally responsible for a hole-in-one. MARTHA BECKMAN When good befalls a man he calls it Providence, when evil fate. KNUT HAMSUN A strict belief, fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand there is comfort in the though... EPICTETUS A strict belief, fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand there is comfort in the though... EPICURUS He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Noth... VICTOR HUGO A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, ... ALEXANDER POPE A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other wor... ALEXANDER POPE The animals that depend on instinct have an inherent knowledge of the laws of economics and of how t... JAMES THURBER It was a tragic, tragic accident, but it is not criminal. JAMES O'SHEA It doesn't mean that Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career is over. But he had a mandate to refor... DARRY SRAGOW Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. RALPH WALDO EMERSON Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. RALPH WALDO EMERSON Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. EMERSON The comic, more than the tragic, because it ignites hope, leads to more, not less, participation in... HARVEY COX Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side... BLAISE PASCAL The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor GEORGE BERNARD SHAW The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to hav... THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY When a man is shooting a handgun, it's just like he is shooting because that's his job, and he has n... HAYAO MIYAZAKI No man can resist a woman who has an apple in her hand. It's theological. A woman with an apple in h... PIA PERA If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self -... OLIVER SACKS A politician who has no compassion is nothing but an evil apparition; he is just a ghost, not a real... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN I feel sad for Fabrice because I feel he regrets that he missed out on something. But on the other h... GUY FORGET Britain has lost one of its greatest comic artists, but he lives on in an incomparable body of work. BEN ELTON Every man is the craftsman of his future, whether he hone it himself or allow fate do it. OGWO DAVID EMENIKE The testimony we've heard in this case is tragic. This is a tragic situation for everyone involved. BART ADAMS When a man dies, his wife is burned alive with him, but if the wife dies before her husband, the man... AL-MAS'UDI We unthinkingly build the pilings of our lives upon whatever comes along. Like it or not, we play th... KILROY J. OLDSTER Radio Shack is meeting the fate of many other stores that were wildly popular in the twentieth centu... ANNALEE NEWITZ I came to feel that, in addition to Imre Kertesz, Hungary has produced at least three contemporary n... GARTH RISK HALLBERG Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens... P.D. JAMES Human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other... ALBERT EINSTEIN Man, one may say, was never in such a completely animal condition; but he has, on the other hand, ne... FRIEDRICH SCHILLER When he understands, as few others do, something of his home that is funny, or sad, or tragic, or cr... WILLIAM MORRIS It is sad when any athlete makes the tragic decision to cheat because it robs other athletes of thei... CRAIG MASBACK ...when he kneels at other times and prays or meditates or tries to achieve a Big-Picture spiritual ... DAVID FOSTER WALLACE The Doktor was an old man. When he was a kid, his Dad bought him a chemistry set. He never played wi... CHRISTINA ENGELA Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence. RALPH WALDO EMERSON Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence. RALPH WALDO EMERSON This was a tragic, tragic situation, but as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed. SEAN MCCORMACK Life is nothing but like a beautiful romantic story that ends with the tragic death of both partners... DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Definitely. Nothing against the other quarterbacks I played with, but this guy is on top of things. ... CEDRICK WILSON The only power which can illuminate you is your own mind! No other mind can lighten you if your mind... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives -- the death of genuine feeling, the... NORMAN COUSINS The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of genuine feeling, the ... NORMAN COUSINS Space technology can and does fail on occasions. Our feeling is that as you escalate the number of t... BRUCE GAGNON In other words, the man who is born into existence deals first with language; this is a given. He is... JACQUES LACAN The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. ... ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. ... SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA The death of my daughter is a subject I talk about briefly because there is nothing more tragic. BEN VEREEN A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is... ALEXANDER POPE This is a tragic accident that has saddened all of us. DONNIE CARTER This penalty is in no way meant to place a value on the tragic loss of life in this case. Each human... CORLIS SELLERS To Tennessee Williams we owe a special debt. In a tragic age, he has transformed loneliness by namin... WILLIAM JAY SMITH Fate has this weird way of making your wish come true by supplementing it with ten other spiteful th... PAWAN MISHRA If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no o... JOSEPH BRODSKY Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM [C]ourage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no ... SAMUEL JOHNSON What we notice is what resonates with our inner perspective. We tend to
overlook what does not conne... GAIL PURSELL ELLIOTT We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or... THEODORE ROOSEVELT We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or ... THEODORE ROOSEVELT All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than th... JAMES F. COOPER All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than t... JAMES FENIMORE COOPER He had a well-organized plan and he pursued it in a criminal and certainly an inhumane and tragic ma... WESLEY CLARK I have thought this way several times in my life but only when circumstances have led me to a bad pa... HUNTER S. THOMPSON There is no gift like friendship. Remember this - when you become a young man. For your fate will tu... RUDYARD KIPLING The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the ... EARL WARREN I don't think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure. KENNETH BRANAGH Because I think you're right. You can make a difference." He told me experiences were kind of like f... LAUREN OLIVER We blame fate for other accidents, but we feel personally responsible when we make a hole in one. UNKNOWN He thinks he'll overpower this guy, but believe me, that is not going to happen. Peter is going in w... EMANUEL STEWARD
More Imre Kertesz
The world of fiction is a sovereign world that comes to life in the author's head and follows th... IMRE KERTESZ I think a man turns into a writer by editing his own texts. IMRE KERTESZ I came from two harsh dictatorships, Nazi and Stalinist. I never thought of becoming a writer as suc... IMRE KERTESZ A book is either autobiography or a novel. IMRE KERTESZ It is often said of me - some intend it as a compliment, others as a complaint - that I write about ... IMRE KERTESZ Modern life is organised so that you benefit at the expense of the other, and the most extreme examp... IMRE KERTESZ I am no historian, but Hungary is a country which has never known democracy - and by that, I mean no... IMRE KERTESZ I have not changed my opinion that the Holocaust is a trauma of European civilization. IMRE KERTESZ What I discovered in Auschwitz is the human condition, the end point of a great adventure, where the... IMRE KERTESZ Writing changed my life. It has an existential dimension, and that's the same for every writer. ... IMRE KERTESZ When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended l... IMRE KERTESZ I was interned in Auschwitz for one year. I didn't bring back anything, except for a few jokes, ... IMRE KERTESZ The Holocaust survivor who knows Auschwitz through the experience of suffering observes it all from ... IMRE KERTESZ The officer is a composite of various Americans who said the same thing. For everyone, it was an imp... IMRE KERTESZ The camera is my tool. Through it I give a reason to everything around me. ANDRE KERTESZ I am still hungry. ANDRE KERTESZ I am an amateur and I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. ANDRE KERTESZ Everything is a subject. Every subject has a rhythm. To feel it is the raison d'être. The photograp... ANDRE KERTESZ Everything is a subject. Every subject has a rhythm. To feel it is the raison d'être. The photograp... ANDRE KERTESZ The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possi... IMRE LAKATOS Our empirical criterion for a series of theories is that it should produce new facts. The idea of gr... IMRE LAKATOS The positive heuristic of the programme saves the scientist from becoming confused by the ocean of a... IMRE LAKATOS Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heur... IMRE LAKATOS Indeed, this epistemological theory of the relation between theory and experiment differs sharply fr... IMRE LAKATOS It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all ... IMRE LAKATOS The clash between Popper and Kuhn is not about a mere technical point in epistemology. IMRE LAKATOS Einstein's results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still thi... IMRE LAKATOS There is no falsification before the emergence of a better theory. IMRE LAKATOS Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of ... IMRE LAKATOS Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime. IMRE LAKATOS If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and voca... IMRE LAKATOS You just sit there and tolerate it, the same way everything in this country is tolerated. Every dece... IMRE KERTéSZ