# José Saramago's most memorable quotes (with the book they come from)

"If you can look, see. If you can see, notice", the true prison of accepting imprisonment and the decisions that make us: the most quoted lines of José Saramago, from Blindness, The Cave, Baltasar and Blimunda and other books.

- 54 votes · 14 items
- Mar 8, 2021 · Diego Moreira
- https://even.best/en/l/5072/jose-saramago-s-most-memorable-quotes-with-the-book-they-come-from

## Top 14

1. **If you can look, see. If you can see, notice.** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Epigraph of Blindness (1995).
2. **Inside us there is something that has no name, and that something is what we are.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Blindness (1995).
3. **Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions; decisions make us.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — All the Names (1997).
4. **The true prison is accepting being imprisoned.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984).
5. **We always arrive at the place where we are expected.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — The Elephant's Journey (2008).
6. **Youth does not know what it can do, and old age cannot do what it knows.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — The Cave (2000).
7. **Two weaknesses do not make a greater weakness; they make a new strength.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — The Cave (2000).
8. **If I am a pessimist, it is because the world is terrible, that is all.** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — In an interview, denying the pessimism attributed to him.
9. **That is life: it keeps giving with one hand until the day comes when it takes everything with the other.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Death with Interruptions (2005).
10. **I think we did not go blind, I think we are blind, blind people who can see, blind people who, seeing, do not see.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Blindness (1995).
11. **Death knows everything about us, and perhaps that is why it is sad.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Death with Interruptions (2005).
12. **The things that seem to have passed are the ones that never finish passing.** (0 · ▲2 ▼2) — The Cave (2000).
13. **The traveller is not a tourist, he is a traveller. There is a big difference. To travel is to discover; the rest is simply finding.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Journey to Portugal (1981).
14. **Men are angels born without wings; it is the most beautiful thing, to be born without wings and make them grow.** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — Baltasar and Blimunda (1982).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.