Samuel Beckett Quotes

Quotes about:

• Don't look for meaning in the words. Listen to the silences.

  Samuel Beckett

  Silence, Looks

  164 Copy quote
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  Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

  Samuel Beckett

  Inspirational, Motivational, Encouraging

  1983 Worst ward Ho.

  344 Copy quote

• Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' You won't believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.

  Samuel Beckett

  Believe, Trying, Matter

  18 Copy quote

• The day you die is just like any other, only shorter.

  Samuel Beckett

  Dies

  11 Copy quote
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  The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.

  Samuel Beckett

  World, Creation, All Time

  Samuel Beckett (1970). “The collected works of Samuel Beckett”

  126 Copy quote

• You're on earth. There's no cure for that.

  Samuel Beckett

  Earth, Cures, Space Travel

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Endgame”, p.48, Faber & Faber

  101 Copy quote

• Words are the clothes thoughts wear.

  Samuel Beckett

  Clothes

  53 Copy quote
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  Nothing is more real than nothing.

  Samuel Beckett

  Real, Waiting For Godot

  Samuel Beckett (2009). “Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable”, p.186, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  105 Copy quote

• Unhappy, but not unhappy enough.

  Samuel Beckett

  Unhappy, Enough

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “Ends and Odds”, p.65, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

• Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order.

  Samuel Beckett

  Life, Dance, Thinking

  64 Copy quote

• If there is one question I dread, to which I have never been able to invent a satisfactory reply, it is the question what am I doing.

  Samuel Beckett

  Able, Dread, Ifs

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “Molloy”, p.183, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  60 Copy quote

• It was the only way to progress, to stop.

  Samuel Beckett

  Progress, Way

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.305, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• Perhaps that's what I feel, an outside and an inside and me in the middle, perhaps that's what I am, the thing that divides the world in two, on the one side the outside, on the other the inside, that can be as thin as foil, I'm neither one side nor the other, I'm in the middle, I'm the partition, I've two surfaces and no thickness, perhaps that's what I feel, myself vibrating, I'm the tympanum, on the one hand the mind, on the other the world, I don't belong to either.

  Samuel Beckett

  Self, Hands, Two

  Samuel Beckett (1970). “The collected works of Samuel Beckett”

  80 Copy quote

• Life is habit. Or rather life is a succession of habits.

  Samuel Beckett

  Life Is, Habit, Succession

  Samuel Beckett, Georges Duthuit (1965). “Proust”, Riverrun Press

  6 Copy quote

• Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!

  Samuel Beckett

  Waiting For Godot, Speak, Stay With Me

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.412, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  20 Copy quote

• With all this darkness round me I feel less alone.

  Samuel Beckett

  Darkness, Feels, Rounds

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Krapp's Last Tape and Other Shorter Plays”, p.24, Faber & Faber

  33 Copy quote

• What do we do now, now that we are happy?

  Samuel Beckett

  Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.415, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  13 Copy quote

• Estragon: I'm like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget.

  Samuel Beckett

  Never Forget, Forget

  1955 Waiting for Godot, act 2.

  16 Copy quote

• All life long, the same questions, the same answers.

  Samuel Beckett

  Long, Answers, Long Life

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett”, p.91, Faber & Faber

  57 Copy quote

• Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich sees in the sand.

  Samuel Beckett

  Eye, Ostriches, Fool

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Murphy”, p.115, Faber & Faber

  56 Copy quote

• James Joyce was a synthesizer, trying to bring in as much as he could. I am an analyzer, trying to leave out as much as I can.

  Samuel Beckett

  Trying, Synthesizers, Joyce

  1981 In the New York Times,19 Apr.

  27 Copy quote

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

  Samuel Beckett

  Men, Littles, Waiting For Godot

  16 Copy quote

• I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.

  Samuel Beckett

  Asking For Help, Tone, Helping

  Samuel Beckett (1967). “Stories & Texts for Nothing”, p.62, Grove Press

  91 Copy quote

• The dust will not settle in our time. And when it does some great roaring machine will come and whirl it all skyhigh again.

  Samuel Beckett

  Art, Philosophy, Dust

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “All That Fall and Other Plays for Radio and Screen”, p.38, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

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

  Samuel Beckett

  Solitude, Proust, Negation

  Samuel Beckett (1931). “Proust”

  12 Copy quote

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