Quotes by Örkény István

"

The egg is birth and passing away at the same time, time passing in a fragile shell. An egg can be anything.

"

I've figured it all out so far, and I'll do it from now on. Life never comes to mind.

"

I have no temper or anger toward anyone; I received more good from people than I could give.

"

A person can love as long as he gives, but I only want to give you what little is left.

"

In this world, everything can be measured, only the temperature of our emotions is not indicated by an instrument. Even the frequency or rarity of meetings is not an indicator of love, friendship, or togetherness.

"

Comrade Stalin said that only those who do not work do not make mistakes. He may have gone too far with the cult of personality, but the core idea is valid.

"

What a person reads between twenty and thirty is a matter of life and death. I was told this when I turned twenty, but I didn't believe it either.

"

It's scary how these tree giants are slowly dying, yesterday morning a little redness was still visible at the top of their crown, today the whole tree is covered in a fiery color, as if a Bengal fire was burning among its leaves. One learns humility from the patience of the giants, as these chestnuts and sycamores endure the autumn: they stand in one place without moving, and in the morning the debris that fell during the night stands around their feet like a yellow puddle. The loneliness of plants is terrible, a hundred times that of humans, and their lonely death is a thousand times more pitiful. All our troubles and worries are dwarfed here under these trees. Just as they can't laugh, I can't either, and I can't wait for my fate like they do.

"

Once upon a time there was a poor widow, and this woman had two beautiful sons. One of them, the older one, got on a ship whose first voyage was about to lead to the Pacific Ocean. What happened to it, what did not, no one can say, because it became a cold place on the seas. The younger one stayed at home. But once when his mother sent him for sugar (which is the seventh house), he never came home. This is a case that happened. But in fairy tales, widows usually have three sons, and it is always the third who prospers.

"

If you don't understand something, read the article in question again. If you still don't understand, then the short story is wrong. There are no stupid people, only bad One-Minutes!

"

Man is not as much as he is, but as much as he can get.

"

Every possibility carries hope under its heart.

"

Their love can see through the mountains, their love walks with seven-mile boots, and they steer an airship with the power of love if their child is traveling on it.

"

Death's closest relative is silence.

"

We all want something from each other. It's just that no one wants anything from old people anymore. But if the old people want something from each other, we laugh at it.

"

I have often wondered: how long does one hope? Now I know: until the last moment.

"

Paradoxically, it is precisely in modern society that death has become a mythical concept, which is an integral part of life, its necessary end, and the main stimulant of all human work, creation, and progress.

"

For us mammals, whether we grind the meat or whether they grind us is not a minor question.

"

If a person pricks his finger and it starts to bleed, our body immediately produces substances that stop the bleeding and heal the wound. The next day we don't feel any of it. Now we are the same with our spiritual wounds, in fact even more so. Because not only are the memories of the hurts, falls, bad luck, and slaps that we suffered in life healed, but some kind of beautifying temperament works in us, in our body, some kind of power that overcomes the shame that fell on us, or the failure that we confessed.

"

I always think that I am not a good enough husband for you and that needs to change. When I go home, we'll start a new life, we'll talk a lot more and I'll tell you everything, even what I haven't until now, because it didn't occur to me. I'll remember now.

"

I could no longer say anything, nor could I do anything (...). I can't even make up for anything by burying myself alive next to him.

"

Be patient and insightful, remember that a pure feeling and a true thought sound equally beautiful in all languages ​​of the world.

"

From whom life took everything, he used to drink the drink of wisdom as compensation. - Wisdom: the absence of envy.

"

I don't understand so many different things that it counts as versatility.

"

Daydreams are mirror reflections of character.

"

Best regards, rain! Greetings, dots in the sky, signs of moving clouds... Don't even look at them adults, afraid of a drop of water, as they run away from you under the protection of their umbrella, under the roof of their house. (...) Dear drops, you fell only for us, whose skin still welcomes your barely perceptible touch... You are the permanence, the sensitive balance of always different and always the same, the present time, which only we dare in the first person singular to live through, dividing and extending the fleeting moment, as the sea divides itself again and again into crested waves.

"

When a person's mind is left free, it becomes the plaything of its own thoughts.

"

Since then, I have also realized how difficult it is to be good, and that to be good you also have to be able to do bad, because everyone is good and bad at the same time, and it depends on the circumstances, whether it will be like this or not. I just don't know what those circumstances should be. I can't figure this out, maybe just because I'm still too young and I don't know life well...

"

I have become old, I am alone a lot, but I take it well, with my head held high, with a little pride; believe me, youth is harder to bear than old age, when one has no choice. But the hardest thing to endure is that old age that deceives itself with youth.

"

A well only receives light from above. Old age is only from the past. Old people, like those poor little children who have only one picture book, always turn the same pages.

"

I figured I had two and a half hours and I could do whatever I wanted with it. I thought that you are young as long as you have two and a half hours like this every now and then. They don't rush. They don't expect it. They don't scold. He fears no one and envies no one; it just is. I also thought that this would pass, but I pushed that thought away.

"

We all come from nothing and go back to the big stinking nothing.

"

Ten minutes can be timed well, and thirty years can be wrong.

"

What appears to be a crowd hides destinies; even the grayest, tight-lipped person carries memories, desires, emotions, and passions.

"

He who defeats others is always defiled. But he who overcomes himself is purified by it.

"

Love me a quarter as much as I love you!

"

Before that, I could always make decisions easily and with a sure hand; I realized that this is because in our youth the question is always this: do I choose the better or the less good. Now I can only choose between two evils, which is why the decision is so difficult.

"

The task of the school is to make questioning a natural and insurmountable habit.