Samuel Beckett Quotes

Irish writer (1906–1989)

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Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet and winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote mainly in English and French.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Andrew Belis

Alternative Names: Samuel Barclay Beckett • Sam Beckett • Sa-miao-erh Pei-kʻo-tʻe • Samuel Beḳeṭ

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Yes, in my life, since we must call it so, there were three things, the inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude, that’s what I’ve had to make the best of.

Henry: I usen't to need anyone, just to myself, stories, there was a great one about an old fellow called Bolton, I never finished it, I never finished any of them, I never finished anything, everything always went on for ever. (Pause.)

لا تزال نوبات قلة الصبر تطوف بي بين حين وآخر.

Yes, there is no good pretending, it is hard to leave everything.

Nothing to be done..

لا شيء ينقضي، لا أحد يأتي، لا أحد يذهب، هذا رهيب.

I could die today, if I wished, merely by making a little effort, if I could wish, if I could make an effort. But it is just as well to let myself die, quietly, without rushing things. Something must have changed. I will not weigh upon the balance any more, one way or the other.

Alone he watched the sky go out, dark deepen to its full. He kept his eyes on the engulfed horizon, for he knew from experience what last throes it was capable of. And in the dark he could hear better too, he could hear the sounds the long day had kept from him, human murmurs for example, and the rain on the water.

All the things you would do gladly, oh without enthusiasm, but gladly, all the things there seems no reason for your not doing, and that you do not do! Can it be we are not free? It might be worth looking into.

God is a witness that cannot be sworn.

What is that unforgettable line?

The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors.

You think you are simply resting, the better to act when the time comes, or for no reason, and you soon find yourself powerless ever to do anything again.

ESTRAGON
What am I to say?
VLADIMIR
Say, I am happy.
ESTRAGON
I am happy.
VLADIMIR
So am I.
ESTRAGON
So am I.
VLADIMIR
We are happy.
ESTRAGON
We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are happy?

In my head there are several windows, that I do know, but perhaps it is always the same one, open variously on the parading universe.