Quotes from Alberto Moravia

They say that, if we manage to live without too great an effort, it is entirely owing to the automatism which makes us unconscious of a great part of our movements. In order to take one single step, it seems, we displace an infinite number of muscles, and yet, thanks to this automatism, we are unaware of it. The same thing happens in our relations with other people.

What was the use of seeing things clearly if the only thing clarity brought was a new and deeper darkness?

El amor propio es una bestia curiosa que puede dormir aun bajo los golpes más crueles; y luego se despierta, en cambio , herido de muerte por un simple rasguño.

the mystery of all things, from the greatest to the least: everything can be explained, except their existence.

The dark realization came to him that a difficult and miserable age had begun for him, and he couldn't imagine when it would end. [Puberty]

De la misma forma que una barra de hierro sometida a una llamapersistente se ablanda y dobla, sentía entonces que el metal de mi ánimo era gradualmenteablandado y doblado por las angustias que lo oprimían.

aquilo que nos modifica não são os fatos extraordinários que acontecem uma só vez, mas sim esse hábito, essa longa aceitação das coisas contra as quais deixamos de nos revoltar.

In life there are no problems, that is, objective and external choices; there is only the life which we do not resolve as a problem but which we live as an experience, whatever the final result may be.

Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt.

Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation in turn becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources - and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on in the future.

War has become an affair of machines...and soldiers are little more than clever mechanics.

When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.