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Quotes by Belgian Authors
"One of them, for example, which will probably haunt me more than any other is the problem of communication."
"Is it absurd to imagine that our social behavior, from amoeba to man, is also planned and dictated, from stored information, by the cells? And that the time has come for men to be entrusted with the task, through heroic efforts, of bringing life to other worlds?"
"I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it."
"I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel."
"In the past, two colleagues died each season. It was generally accepted this could happen."
"Lightness and weightiness are both linked to a philosophy of life. They are choices in life. Heaviness can be the embodiment of a sense of responsibility, the expression of maturity, the result of profound meditation or the emanation of a search for meaning in life. Weightiness, however, may also lead to a feeling of oppression, when it is felt as a burden, an unbearable burden. Then time has come to let loose and things can finally lose their gravity. ['The unbearable heaviness of being']"
"By confusing strategy with tactics and mixing up "what and "how, we may have a hard time staying on point. What we want, on the one hand, and "how we want to achieve it, on the other, needs a careful reading and a singular approach. ['When the bar is set too high']"
"When grief impounds our thinking and eats our brains, it seeps through all the cracks of our daily living. Only the soothing wind of comforting words may counter the withering twilight and the frostiness of darkness. ['All the words he always wanted to tell her.']"
"We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world."
"Rome should sometimes intervene and say this or that is not in conformity with the Catholic faith. Theologians should understand that. Some theologians go too far, for example, reducing the Catholic faith to a universal philosophy."
"Fortunately, in the place where I went out, they had set up a little previously a fence which prevented me finally from smashing against trees. I went out with a broken leg only. A small price to be paid at the time for an accident of this kind."
"Postmen have a legendary aura. A ring at the doorbell may inflame a sense of expectation, suspense, secrecy, hazard or even intrigue. Ringing twice may imply a warning that trouble is on the way or an appeal to make the coast clear. Not all mailmen, though, will ring twice and await an eye-catching Lana Turner, whom they can whisper: "With my brains and your looks, we could go places. ['The postman always rings twice']"
"We can escape the commonplace only by manipulating it, controlling it, thrusting it into our dreams or surrendering it to the free play of our subjectivity."
"This familiarity with a respected physician and my appreciation of his work, or the tragedy I experienced with the long, tormented agony and death of my mother might have influenced me in wanting to study medicine. It was not the case."
"Revolution is an instrument, like a party is an instrument."
"There are more truths in twenty-four hours of a man's life than in all the philosophies."
"Ideally a book would have no order in it, and the reader would have to discover his own."
"My father bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine."
"At synods, I usually wait about a week before I speak. First I listen. I feel the temperature. I listen to what has been said, what has not been said, and what I think needs to be said at that point."
"When the past gets its teeth into our daily life, it may get to grips with an astringent reality and adjust our timeline. By recognizing ourselves in the light of our history, we become aware of what we are. ['Going back to yesterday']"
"When our mental functioning is whittling away and our mind becomes a lame duck, perception does not form the context anymore and all connections on the social chessboard are conked out. Only patience and endurance may draw us out of the quagmire of numbness and allow us to tear open the cloudy screen that is hiding our points of 'interest' and 'attention', so long as we focus on the 'singular moments' and the 'appealing details' in our life. Awareness can help us shape a comprehensive picture for a functional future. ['Lost the global story.']"
"Once we get to know where and why the skeletons of the past are buried, we can start wading across our muddled memories into the open plains of a new horizon. ['Going back to yesterday']"
"To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been."
"I'd be interested in finding out if there is a light you walk into, and if you do meet people from your life and walk hand in hand with Jesus. I would hate for my death to be tragic: I'd like to be old when it happens. But hopefully a young death is unlikely."
"Before Vatican II, in theology, as in other areas, the discipline was fixed. After the council there has been a revolution - a chaotic revolution - with free discussion on everything. There is now no common theology or philosophy as there was before."
"I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person."
"Is happiness a sort of blissful state of mind or just a kind of surreal propensity? It may be hard to recognize its very nature, if we remain guilelessly confined in a state of woeful unawareness or in a no-man's-land of emotions. In their dogged and obstinate quest for the zenith of happiness, many forget to take pleasure in the small things of everyday and, thus, become disgruntled and depressed instead, which leads them to a mire of gloom. ['C'est quand le bonheur ']"
"When life hasn't got a swing anymore, people may give in to obsessive oniomaniac compulsions, in as much as they are going out of their way to construct a flamboyant life style and change their identity from "don't-need to "must-have consumers, so as to satisfy their gripping buying desire. ['Buying now. Dying later']"
"Some men can be good ' horse whisperers ' and many dogs can be wonderful ' man whisperers '."
"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone."
"A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods."
"Between shortage and absolute poverty an ocean of shades and gradations do emerge on the scale of deficiency. Be that as it may, each stage must find a mode to leave a door ajar for the sun to peer in and human warmth to radiate. [' Homeless down in the corner']"
"We have entered the cell, the Mansion of our birth, and started the inventory of our acquired wealth."
"When we fail to reflect on the underlying currents of our life’s circumstances, we risk developing lasting doubts about the accuracy of our interpretations. A clear and honest examination of our actions and desires helps us avoid falling into the frustrating gap between our own expectations and those of others." ['Alors, tout a basculé']
"There are no conditions in which we subordinate the interests of the class as a whole to the interests of any sect, any chapel, any separate organization."
"Many men remain spoiled boys that have never grown up. Women are prepared to raise them and take pain with patience, both as a condescendant contribution to supercilious compassion and as a proof of the eminence of their sense of worth. ['PrAat-A -penser" / "Ready-to-wear thinking']"
"If we expect to "know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we may have a hard time seeing the whole picture, since the truth is a willful construction that allows us often merely to "guess. ['Hinter der Mattscheibe']"
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