Quotes from book
Blindness

Blindness
José Saramago Original title Ensaio sobre a cegueira (Portuguese, 1995)

Blindness is a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago. It is one of his most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda. In 1998, Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Blindness was one of his works noted by the committee when announcing the award.

José Saramago photo

“If we cannot live entirely like human beings, at least let us do everything in our power not to live entirely like animals.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Se não formos capazes de viver inteiramente como pessoas, ao menos façamos tudo para não viver inteiramente como animais.
Source: Blindness (1995), p. 116

José Saramago photo

“Do you want me to tell you what I think, Yes, do, I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 326

José Saramago photo

“If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 290

José Saramago photo

“If you can see, look. If you can look, observe.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Se podes olhar, vê. Se podes ver, repara.
Epigraph
Blindness (1995)

José Saramago photo

“The question suddenly came into my head, 'And if we were all blind?' And then immediately, as if answering myself, 'But we are all blind.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Um dia, sentado à mesa, pensei: E se fôssemos todos cegos? Imediatamente me veio a resposta: Nós somos todos cegos.
On the idea for his next novel (Blindness), which came to him while sitting in a restaurant; New York Times interview with Alan Riding (1998), as quoted in Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, 6th Edition (Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, 2001), p. 131.

José Saramago photo

“How are you, doctor, that is what we say when we do not wish to play the weakling, we say Fine, even though we may be dying, and this is commonly known as taking one's courage in both hands, a phenomenon that has only been observed in the human species.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 32

José Saramago photo

“Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 126

José Saramago photo

“That night the blind man dreamt that he was blind.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 15

José Saramago photo

“The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 284

José Saramago photo

“Some drivers have already got out of their cars, prepared to push the stranded vehicle to a spot where it will not hold up the traffic, they beat furiously on the closed windows, the man inside turns his head in their direction, first to one side then to the other, he is clearly shouting something, to judge by the movements of his mouth he appears to be repeating some words, no one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 2

José Saramago photo

“This is the stuff we're made of, half indifference and half malice.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 32

José Saramago photo

“The sceptics, who are many and stubborn, claim that, when it comes to human nature, if it is true that the opportunity does not always make the thief, it is also true that it helps a lot.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), pp. 16-17

José Saramago photo

“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Dentro de nós há uma coisa que não tem nome, essa coisa é o que somos.
Source: Blindness (1995), p. 276

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