Jose Saramago Quotes & Sayings

“I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are.”

“I believe myself to be the type of person who does not complicate his life. I have always lived my life without dramatizing things, whether the good things that have happened to me or the bad. I simply live those moments.”

“The world is governed by institutions that are not democratic - the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO.”

“A human being is a being who is constantly 'under construction,' but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction.”

“There are plenty of reasons not to put up with the world as it is.”

“It is economic power that determines political power, and governments become the political functionaries of economic power.”

“It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people.”

“What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of a human being?”

“As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things.”

“I always ask two questions: How many countries have military bases in the United States? And in how many countries does the United States not have military bases?”