Pramoedya Ananta Toer Quotes

• An educated person must learn to act justly, beginning, first of all, with his thoughts, then later in his deeds. That is what it means to be educated.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Mean, Deeds, Firsts

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1991). “Awakenings”

  49 Copy quote

• Life can give everything to whoever tries to understand and is willing to receive new knowledge.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Inspirational, Life, Learning

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “This Earth of Mankind”, Penguin Books

  74 Copy quote

• Humankind is able to create new conditions, a new reality. We are not fated to swim forever among the realities that are here now. ... Everything that is worthwhile in human civilization has not only originated from but has been inspired by dreams, by imagination.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Dream, Reality, Civilization

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “Footsteps”, Penguin Group USA

  41 Copy quote

• Painting is literature in colors. Literature is painting in language.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Color, Literature, Painting

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “This Earth of Mankind”, Penguin Books

  28 Copy quote

• You must first of all think justly. Don’t sit in judgment over others when you don’t know the truth of the matter.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Thinking, Matter, Firsts

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “This Earth of Mankind”, Penguin Books

  35 Copy quote

• I'll do as I please. My mind is not to be imprisoned.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Mind, Please

  21 Copy quote

• Do not underestimate the human being, who sometimes appears so simple. Even with sight as sharp as an eagle, a mind as sharp as a razor, senses more powerful than gods, hearing that can catch the music and the lamentations of life, your knowledge of humanity will never be total.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Powerful, Simple, Sight

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1991). “This Earth of Mankind”, William Morrow

  30 Copy quote

• It's proper that people have friends, friendships without self-interest. Without friends, life is too lonely.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Lonely, Self, People

  "Awakenings".

  44 Copy quote

• Pity is the feeling of well-intentioned people who are unable to act.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  People, Feelings, Pity

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “This Earth of Mankind”, Penguin Books

  5 Copy quote

• My words, my writing, my actions—these have never been for myself alone, either directly or indirectly. There is no such thing as an artist who creates art only for himself. That is masturbation.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Art, Writing, Action

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1999). “The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir”

  35 Copy quote

• I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Writing, Giving, Joy

  7 Copy quote

• At the beginning of all growth, everything imitates.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Growth

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1996). “This Earth of Mankind”, p.87, Penguin

  18 Copy quote

• I came to see that man finds meaning in his existence only through the active demonstration of his human self, a cosmos comprising the entire constellation of life's factors: culture, civilization, tradition, history, ideals, facts, physical conditions, one's mental state, the ecology, and so on.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Men, Civilization, Self

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Willem Samuels (1999). “The Mute's soliloquy: a memoir”, Hyperion Books

  25 Copy quote

• I will not close my eyes, neither those in my head nor those in my soul, as the ship carries me away, along with my future, my dreams, and my beliefs. Buru Island is no happy land somewhere; it's but a way station on my journey in life—though to believe even that much will require no small measure of hope.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Dream, Believe, Eye

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1999). “The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir”

  26 Copy quote

• I did not succeed in everything I did. And even where it did seem I was succeeding it was not always the case. The human heart has a million facets.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Heart, Succeed, Cases

  18 Copy quote

• I don't follow any kind of 'isms.' If there is one, it will be Pram-ism.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Isms, Kind, Prams

  18 Copy quote

• The love I knew was from books.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Book

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1999). “The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir”

  24 Copy quote

• Every book that is banned is a badge of honor.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Book, Honor, Badges

  23 Copy quote

• The fracture of pencil still useful, but the fracture of soul, we couldn't use it, Mister.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Soul, Use, Fracture

  20 Copy quote

• Let us see whether it is the New Order or me who will be the loser before Indonesian history. I have won. The New Order has fallen and my writings have been translated into 40 languages.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Writing, Order, Loser

  29 Copy quote

• Such was the love of this grandson for his grandmother that two years after the death of his mother, when she herself fell gravely ill, he vowed to her that someday he would try to tell the world her life story. 'But why?' she asked humbly. 'I'm no one, just a girl from the coast' 'But you are everyone, Grandma,' the young Pramoedya told her. 'You are all the people who have ever had to fight to make this life their own.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Girl, Mother, Grandma

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Willem Samuels (2002). “The girl from the coast: a novel”, Hyperion Books

  23 Copy quote

• A mother knows what her child's gone through, even if she didn't see it herself.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Mother, Children, Gone

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Willem Samuels (2002). “The girl from the coast: a novel”, Hyperion Books

  13 Copy quote

• Capital dictates the fate of humanity.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Fate, Humanity

  12 Copy quote

• I happen to be pretty productive when I am in jail. When you are in jail, you have to spend more time with yourself.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Jail, More Time, Happens

  15 Copy quote

• Even though no one admits it, writers are leaders in their communities.

  Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  Community, Leader

  14 Copy quote

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