Samuel Beckett Quotes

Quotes about:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Beckett

Inspirational, Motivational, Encouraging

1983 Worst ward Ho.

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

Samuel Beckett

Silence, Looks

136 Copy quote
Words are the clothes thoughts wear.

Samuel Beckett

Clothes

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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”

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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.

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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”

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

Samuel Beckett

Earth, Cures, Space Travel

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

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If you do not love me I shall not be loved If I do not love you I shall not love.

Samuel Beckett

Love, Love You, Ifs

Samuel Beckett (2007). “Collected Poems in English and French”, p.30, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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

Samuel Beckett

Life, Dance, Thinking

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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

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My mistakes are my life.

Samuel Beckett

Mistake, My Mistakes

Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.503, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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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.

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To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.

Samuel Beckett

Artist, Tasks, Chaos

"Why music struck a chord with Beckett" by Sean Doran, www.theguardian.com. July 31, 2014.

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Art has nothing to do with clarity, does not dabble in the clear and does not make clear

Samuel Beckett

Art, Doe, Clarity

Samuel Beckett, Ruby Cohn (1983). “Disjecta: miscellaneous writings and a dramatic fragment”, Riverrun Pr

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We spend our life, it's ours, trying to bring together in the same instant a ray of sunshine and a free bench

Samuel Beckett

Sunshine, Trying, Together

Samuel Beckett (1995). “The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989”, p.111, Grove Press

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I have my faults, but changing my tune is not one of them.

Samuel Beckett

Teaching, Learning, Tunes

Samuel Beckett (2009). “Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable”, p.329, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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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

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What are we doing here, that is the question.

Samuel Beckett

Life, Waiting For Godot, Godot

Samuel Beckett (2012). “The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett”, p.71, Faber & Faber

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The Tuesday scowls, the Wednesday growls, the Thursday curses, the Friday howls, the Saturday snores, the Sunday yawns, the Monday morns, the Monday morns. The whacks, the moans, the cracks, the groans, the welts, the squeaks, the belts, the shrieks, the pricks, the prayers, the kicks, the tears, the skelps, and the yelps.

Samuel Beckett

Friday, Monday, Prayer

Samuel Beckett (2009). “Watt”, p.37, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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Memories are killing. So you must not think of certain things, of those that are dear to you, or rather you must think of them, for if you don’t there is the danger of finding them, in your mind, little by little.

Samuel Beckett

Memories, Thinking, Mind

Samuel Beckett (1995). “The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989”, p.46, Grove Press

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For to know nothing is nothing, not to want to know anything likewise, but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond knowing anything, that is when peace enters in, to the soul of the incurious seeker.

Samuel Beckett

Knowing, Soul, Want

Samuel Beckett (2007). “Molloy”, p.66, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

51 Copy quote
The old endless chain of love, tolerance, indifference, aversion and disgust

Samuel Beckett

Tolerance, Aversion, Indifference

Samuel Beckett (2011). “Murphy”, p.157, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.

Samuel Beckett

Alternatives, Sun, Beckett

Samuel Beckett (2007). “I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader”, p.71, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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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

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That's the mistake I made, one of the mistakes, to have wanted a story for myself, whereas life alone is enough.

Samuel Beckett

Mistake, Stories, Enough

Samuel Beckett (1967). “Stories & Texts for Nothing”, p.93, Grove Press

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Born: April 13, 1906
Died: December 22, 1989
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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