What can it matter to me, that I succeed or fail ? The undertaking is none of mine, if they want me to succeed I'll fail, and vice versa, so as not to be rid of my tormentors.

Samuel Beckett

Categorized in : Want Vices Mentor

Do we mean love, when we say love? by Samuel Beckett

Do we mean love, when we say love?

The dust will not settle in our time. And when it does some great roaring machine will come and whirl it all skyhigh again.

dust philosophy art

The only sin is the sin of being born. by Samuel Beckett

The only sin is the sin of being born.

Where you have nothing, there you should want nothing. by Samuel Beckett

Where you have nothing, there you should want nothing.

Unhappy, but not unhappy enough. by Samuel Beckett

Unhappy, but not unhappy enough.

The only thing you must never speak of is your happiness. by Samuel Beckett

The only thing you must never speak of is your happiness.

speak happiness

Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.

fire gone years

It was the only way to progress, to stop. by Samuel Beckett

It was the only way to progress, to stop.

I had seen faces in photographs I might have found beautiful had I known even vaguely in what beauty was supposed to consist. And my father's face, on his death-bolster, had seemed to hint at some form of aesthetics relevant to man. But the faces of the living, all grimace and flush, can they be described as objects?

beautiful men father

Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity. by Samuel Beckett

Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity.

philosopher poet humanity

Success and failure on the public level never mattered much to me, in fact I feel more at home with the latter, having breathed deep of its vivifying air all my writing life up to the last couple of years.

couple home success

Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot. by Samuel Beckett

Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot.

waiting-for-godot why-not waiting

it's impossible I should have a mind and I have one by Samuel Beckett

it's impossible I should have a mind and I have one

thoughtful should-have thinking

We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals. by Samuel Beckett

We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals.

There's no lack of void. by Samuel Beckett

There's no lack of void.

There is at least this to be said for mind, that it can dispel mi... by Samuel Beckett

There is at least this to be said for mind, that it can dispel mind.

Hardly had the glow been kindled by some good deed on your part or by some little triumph over your rivals or by a word of praisefrom your parents or mentors when it would begin to cool and fade leaving you in a very short time as chill and dim as before.

achievement leaving parent

I gave up before birth. by Samuel Beckett

I gave up before birth.

futility gave-up birth

I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. (Pause. Low) Let me in.

shadow eye looks

The bicycle is a great good. But it can turn nasty, if ill employ... by Samuel Beckett

The bicycle is a great good. But it can turn nasty, if ill employed.

cycling nasty ill