Quotes by Samuel Beckett

They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more.

Ah earth you old extinguisher.

I shall soon be quite dead at last in spite of all.

One day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second.

And yet sometimes it seems to me I am there, among the incriminated scenes, tottering under the attributes peculiar to the lords of creation ... Yes, more than once I almost took myself for the other, all but suffered after his fashion, the space of an instant.

drill one hole after another into [language] until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping through – I cannot imagine a higher goal for today’s writer.

[Y]ou cannot mention everything in its proper place, you must choose, between the things not worth mentioning and those and those even less so.

Spend the years of learning squanderingCourage for the years of wanderingThrough a world politely turningFrom the loutishness of learning.

Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

You cant have everything, Ive often noticed it.

It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.

POZZO:I am blind.(Silence.)ESTRAGON:Perhaps he can see into the future.

The forms are many in which the unchanging seeks relief from its formlessness.

To every man his little cross. Till he dies. And is forgotten.

Vladimir, be reasonable, you havent yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle.

ESTRAGON: Dont touch me! Dont question me! Dont speak to me! Stay with me!VLADIMIR: Did I ever leave you?ESTRAGON: You let me go.

As it is with the love of the body, so with the friendship of the mind, the full is only reached by admittance to the most retired places.

Friendship, according to Proust, is the negation of that irremediable solitude to which every human being is condemned.

What is certain is this, that I never rested in that way again, my feet obscenely resting on the earth, my arms on the handlebars and on my arms my head, rocking and abandoned. It is indeed a delporable sight, a deplorable example, for the people, who so need to be encouraged, in their bitter toil, and to have before their eyes manifestations of strength only, of courage and joy, without which they might collapse, at the end of the day, and roll on the ground.