Jose Saramago Quotes

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Jose Saramago

Profession : Writer

Birth : November 16, 1922

People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it's only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich.

Jose Saramago

The problem is that the right doesn't need any ideas to govern, but the left can't govern without ideas.

Jose Saramago

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

Jose Saramago

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

Jose Saramago

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

Jose Saramago

Abstention means you stayed at home or went to the beach. By casting a blank vote, you're saying you have a political conscience but you don't agree with any of the existing parties.

Jose Saramago

The painter paints, the musician makes music, the novelist writes novels. But I believe that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens.

Jose Saramago

The U.S. needs to control the Middle East, the gateway to Asia. It already has military installations in Uzbekistan.

Jose Saramago

I don't defend the idea of universal love. It has never existed and will never exist.

Jose Saramago

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

Jose Saramago

I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.

Jose Saramago

Death is present every day in our lives. It's not that I take pleasure in the morbid fascination of it, but it is a fact of life.

Jose Saramago

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?

Jose Saramago

Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.

Jose Saramago

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.

Jose Saramago

Being fired was the best luck of my life. It made me stop and reflect. It was the birth of my life as a writer.

Jose Saramago

I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see.

Jose Saramago

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

Jose Saramago

Society has to change, but the political powers we have at the moment are not enough to effect this change. The whole democratic system would have to be rethought.

Jose Saramago

A writer's definitive death is when no one reads his books anymore. That's the final death.

Jose Saramago