All Quotes By Tag: Absurd

“BERENGER: And you consider all this natural? 

DUDARD: What could be more natural than a rhinoceros? 

BERENGER: Yes, but for a man to turn into a rhinoceros is abnormal beyond question. 

DUDARD: Well, of course, that’s a matter of opinion … 

BERENGER: It is beyond question, absolutely beyond question! 
DUDARD: You seem very sure of yourself. Who can say where the normal stops and the abnormal begins? Can you personally define these conceptions of normality and abnormality? Nobody has solved this problem yet, either medically or philosophically. You ought to know that. 

BERENGER: The problem may not be resolved philosophically — but in practice it’s simple. They may prove there’s no such thing as movement … and then you start walking … [he starts walking up and down the room] … and you go on walking, and you say to yourself, like Galileo, ‘E pur si muove’ … 

DUDARD: You’re getting things all mixed up! Don’t confuse the issue. In Galileo’s case it was the opposite: theoretic and scientific thought proving itself superior to mass opinion and dogmatism. 

BERENGER: [quite lost] What does all that mean? Mass opinion, dogmatism — they’re just words! I may be mixing everything up in my head but you’re losing yours. You don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t any more. I couldn’t care less about Galileo … I don’t give a damn about Galileo. 

DUDARD: You brought him up in the first place and raised the whole question, saying that practice always had the last word. Maybe it does, but only when it proceeds from theory! The history of thought and science proves that. BERENGER: [more and more furious] It doesn’t prove anything of the sort! It’s all gibberish, utter lunacy! 

DUDARD: There again we need to define exactly what we mean by lunacy … 

BERENGER: Lunacy is lunacy and that’s all there is to it! Everybody knows what lunacy is. And what about the rhinoceroses — are they practice or are they theory?”

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”

“Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.”

“Children and dogs are the messengers of God some of us do not deserve them”

“Some stories have to be written because no one would believe the absurdity of it all.”

“If warm air rises, Heaven could be hotter than Hell.”

“Absurdity is the ecstasy of intellectualism.”

“Everything not forbidden is compulsory”

“To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.”

“Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics. ”

“Everyone has a photographic Memory, some just don’t have film.”

“When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”

“I did not marry the first girl that I fell in love with, because there was a tremendous religious conflict, at the time. She was an atheist, and I was an agnostic.”

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”

“I just can’t listen to any more Wagner, you know…I’m starting to get the urge to conquer Poland.”