Ivo Andric Best Quotes & Sayings

Sadness is also a kind of defence. — Ivo Andric

He who is not delicate flower of your soul to the winds of temptation, whatever it whole and saved and passed on to the end, it's as if it never had. — Ivo Andric

Every human generation has its own illusions with regard to civilization; some believe they are taking part in its upsurge, others that they are witnesses of its extinction. In fact, it always both flames and smolders and is extinguished, according to the place and the angle of view. — Ivo Andric

They entered there into the unconscious philosophy of the town; that life was an incomprehensible marvel, since it was incessantly wasted and spent, yet none the less it lasted and endured 'like the bridge on the Drina'. — Ivo Andric

Lost in his thoughts he looked out from his shop at the shining loveliness of that first day of March. Opposite him, a little to the side, stood the eternal bridge, everlastingly the same; through its white arches could be seen the green, sparkling, tumultuous waters of the Drina, so that they seemed like some strange diadem in two colours which sparkled in the sun. — Ivo Andric

If people would know how little brain is ruling the world, they would die of fear. — Ivo Andric

It was an intimate bond between the men of that generation ... for nothing brings men close together than a common misfortune happily overcome. — Ivo Andric

I gave in to life. I was not defeated but outplayed. — Ivo Andric

What does your sorrow do while you sleep? -It's awake and waiting. And when it loses patience, it wakes me up. — Ivo Andric

Every woman has some reason to weep and weeping is sweetest when it is for another's sorrow. — Ivo Andric

And then the death will come. The great parting, but the least painful of all the goodbyes we ever knew. For in death, only one shall grieve. And so far we have always, at every parting, grieved together. — Ivo Andric

Forgetfulness heals everything and song is the most beautiful manner of forgetting, for in song man feels only what he loves. — Ivo Andric

There is no rule without revolts and conspiracies, even as there is no property without work and worry. — Ivo Andric

For a man filled with a great, true and unselfish love, even if it be on one side only, there open horizons and possibilities and paths which are closed and unknown to so many clever, ambitious, and selfish men. — Ivo Andric

Lands of great discoveries are also lands of great injustices. — Ivo Andric

The streets were empty, the courtyards and gardens as if dead. In the Turkish houses depression and confusion reigned, in the Christian houses caution and distrust. But everywhere and for everyone there was fear. The entering Austrians feared an ambush. The Turks feared the Austrians. The Serbs feared both Austrians and Turks. The Jews feared everything and everyone since, especially in times of war, everyone was stronger than they. — Ivo Andric

Hope is an act of desperate defiance against monstrous odds. — Ivo Andric

~beautiful soul weeps deep~ — Ivo Andric

When I am not desperate, I am worthless. — Ivo Andric

They were all there.And all of them,these days,were as if drunk with bitterness,from desire for vengeance and longed to punish and to kill whomsoever they could,since they could not punish or kill those whom they wished. — Ivo Andric

There comes a time when a man finds himself in front of a dark uncrossable abyss, which he himself has spent years digging. He cannot go forward, and has no way back. Words have failed, tears won't help, and who would he call out to? He can't even remember his own name. Then the man sees that on this god's green earth there is but one true suffering: the torment of guilty conscience. — Ivo Andric

For only thus, living each moment separately and looking neither forward nor back, could such a life be borne and a man keep himself alive in hope of better days. — Ivo Andric

The sky above Belgrade is expansive and high, shifting yet always beautiful; clear with its chill splendour during the winter; turning into a single downcast cloud during summer storms, driven by the crazy winds and bearing rain mixed with the dust of the Pannonian plain; seeming to flower along with the ground during spring; and growing heavy with roils of autumnal stars during fall. Always beautiful and bountiful, it is a reward to this odd township for all that is missing and a comfort for everything that should not be. — Ivo Andric

They looked at the paper and saw nothing in those curving lines, but they knew and understood everything, for their geography was in their blood and they felt biologically their picture of the world. — Ivo Andric

No one knows what it means to be born and to live on the brink, between two worlds....to love and hate both, to hesitate and waver all one's life. To have two homelands and yet have none. To be everywhere at home and to remain forever a stranger. In short, to be torn on a rack, but as both victim and torturer at once. — Ivo Andric

Each of them had personal, real or imagined, but deep reasons for dissatisfaction with life. Furthermore they had one great reason in common; both felt themselves to be unhappy and like outcasts in this town and this society of officers, for the most part frivolous and empty-headed. So they clung to one another feverishly like two survivors of a shipwreck. — Ivo Andric

Whenever a government feels the need of promising peace and prosperity to its citizens by means of a proclamation, it is time to be on guard and expect the opposite. — Ivo Andric

What doesn't hurt - is not life; what doesn't pass - is not happiness. — Ivo Andric

I don't plan anything any more. I just live my life. — Ivo Andric

I do not fear invisible worlds. — Ivo Andric