Quotes by Romain Gary

“Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of mans superiority to all that befalls him.”

“The avantgarde are people who don’t exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.”

“Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man’s superiority to all that befalls him.”

...the most sacred right of a person is to refuse o be manipulated, handled, cheated, and then kicked in the ass---.

-I love you, Lenny.-From the diaphragm.-What are you talking about?-You have to say it from the diaphragm. Thats a muscle in here. Real deep, not from the throat. I tried to be an actor once and thats the first thing they told me. Thats when I quit. I just didnt have that much in my diaphragm.

An unbearable reality, combined with the impossibility to change it, tends to lead to abstractions for abstractions sake, and unreality becomes more realistic than reality itself, more true, more convincing, simply because it looks at you with the eyes of justice.

Reality is not an inspiration for literature. At its best, literature is an inspiration for reality.

-Would you wish us to invest it for you?-No, I would like you to set up a trust for dumb animals.-What kind of dumb animals do you have in mind, Miss Donahue?-Oh, stray dogs. Rats. Birds.-We could still invest it for you. Then the animals would get the income without touching the capital.-No, I dont wish to invest it. I dont want them to get rich. They might become human.

He gave up. Hed been feeling like giving up for a long, long time. I guess its maturity, they say it always gets you in the end. I dont seem to have any more principles left, so its got to be maturity... A broken man, I guess thats what you become, the moment you are no longer a kid.

Humor is an affirmation of dignity a declaration of mans superiority to all that befalls him.

Humour is an affirmation of dignity a declaration of mans superiority to all that befalls him.

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of mans superiority to all that befalls him.

“Jai connu et je connais encore, dans ma vie, des bonheurs inouïs. Depuis mon enfance, par exemple, jai toujours aimé les concombres salés, pas les cornichons, mais les concombres, les vrais, les seuls et uniques, ceux quon appelle concombres à la russe. Jen ai toujours trouvé partout. Souvent, je men achète une livre, je minstalle quelque part au soleil, au bord de la mer, ou nimporte où, sur un trottoir ou sur un banc, je mords dans mon concombre et me voilà complètement heureux. Je reste là, au soleil, le coeur apaisé, en regardant les choses et les hommes dun œil amical et je sais que la vie vaut vraiment la peine dêtre vécue, que le bonheur est accessible, quil suffit simplement de trouver sa vocation profonde, et de se donner à ce quon aime avec un abandon total de soi.”