Nelson Rodrigues Quotes – Part V – Virtues, Nostalgia

Virtues

It is wise to not bait good people; it is wise to not provoke the pure of heart. In every human being, even the best of them, there lies a series of dormant ferocities. It’s important to remember to not rouse them.

I’m a naturally born poor man, and I repeat: a poor man by vocation. To this day, luxury, ostentation, jewels, only confuse and offend me.

Men were not born to be great. The minimum of magnitude is dehumanizing. For example: a minister. He alone is nobody, they’ll say. But the fact that he is a minister is his stuffing. It’s as if he is all cotton on the inside, and no working bowels.

Nothing humiliates us more than the courage of others.

I don’t believe in honesty without acidity, special diets and ulcers.

Today it is very difficult to not be a scoundrel. Pressures from all around are working towards our personal and collective degradation.

All self-criticism has the immodesty of a eulogy written by its own deceased.

Heroes die in combat. Destiny doesn’t afford them time for us to catch them in bed or in a rocking chair.

Perfection is something for little piano playing girls.

I only believe in people that still blush.

We all have defects inside of us, active and militant, but non-confessed…

Every gynecologist should be chaste. They should walk around wearing cassocks, sandals and leaf crowns on their heads. Like St. Francis of Assisi, with latex gloves and a little birdie on each shoulder.

Nostalgia

In life, the important thing is to fail.

My God, why are there so many eyes in the world?

Never have women been less loved than in our times.

I want to believe that certain periods in time are mentally ill; ours, for example.

In our century, “great men” can, at the same time, be twits!

The great event of the century was the astounding and hectic rise of the idiot.

In 1911, people didn’t drink a glass of water without passion.

Television killed the window.

I think that speed is a pleasure for cretins. I still conserve the delight of our rail cars that practically never reach their destinations.