Arthur & George
Julian Barnes
Top 10 Best Quotes
“If a man cannot tell what he wants to do, then he must find out what he ought to do. If desire has become complicated, then hold fast to duty.”
“And that was all the part of it - the way you were obliged to live. You stifled a groan, you lied about your love, you deceived your legal wife, and all in the name of honour. That was the damned paradox of it - in order to behave well, you have to behave badly.”
“He always thought that Touie's long illness would somehow prepare him for her death. He always imagined that grief anf guilt, if they followed, would be more clear-edged, more defined, more finite. Instead they seem like weather, like clouds constantly re-forming into new shapes, blown by nameless, unidentifiable winds.”
“If these are indeed the spirits of Englishmen and Englishwomen who have passed over into the next world, surely they would know how to form a proper queue?”
“It was perfectly possible to be an artist, yet also to be robust and responsible.”
“Every bird you downed bore pebbles in its gizzard from a land the maps ignored.”
“wear flannel next to your skin, and never believe in eternal punishment.”
“Honour is not just a matter of internal good feeling, but also of external behaviour.”
“The way, the truth and the life. You go on your way through life telling the truth.”
“Arthur was frequently baffled by the complacency with which people went on with what they insouciantly called their lives, as if both the word and the thing made perfect sense to them.”
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Book Keywords:
illness, humor, honour, inspirational, death, death-of-a-loved-one, love, arthur-conan-doyle, life, humorous, marriage, paradox, death-and-dying, meaning
