Julian Barnes Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. I think that in life you have to discover what you're good at, recognise what you can't do, decide what you want, aim for it, and try not to regret things afterwards. Talking It Over

2. Remember the botched brothel-visit in L’Education sentimentale and remember its lesson. Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination, not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory. Flaubert's Parrot

3. To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness - though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless. Flaubert's Parrot

4. You get towards the end of life—no, not life itself, but of something else: the end of any likelihood of change in that life. You are allowed a long moment of pause, time enough to ask the question: what else have I done wrong? The Sense of an Ending

5. [Flaubert] didn’t just hate the railway as such; he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together. Flaubert's Parrot

6. And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time’s malleability. The Sense of an Ending

7. Art is the whisper of history, heard above the noise of time. The Noise of Time

8. He feared me as many men fear women: because their mistresses (or their wives) understand them. They are scarcely adult, some men: they wish women to understand them, and to that end they tell them all their secrets; and then, when they are properly understood, they hate their women for understanding them. Flaubert's Parrot

9. History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated. The Sense of an Ending

10. In the letter he left for the coroner he had explained his reasoning (for suicide): that life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is the moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision. ... Alex showed me a clipping from the Cambridge Evening News. 'Tragic Death of "Promising" Young Man.' ... The verdict of the coroner's inquest had been that Adrian Flinn (22) had killed himself 'while the balance of his mind was disturbed.' ... The law, and society, and religion all said it was impossible to be sane, healthy, and kill yourself. Perhaps those authorities feared that the suicide's reasoning might impugn the nature and value of life as organised by the state which paid the coroner? The Sense of an Ending

11. Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? The Sense of an Ending

12. Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time's malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing--until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return. The Sense of an Ending

13. Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business. The Sense of an Ending

14. This was long before the term 'single-parent family' came into use; back then it was a 'broken home'... The Sense of an Ending

15. Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm, comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve? The Sense of an Ending

16. You're still in it. You'll always be in it. No, not literally. But in your heart. Nothing ever ends, not if it's gone that deep. You'll always be walking wounded. That's the only choice, after a while. Walking wounded, or dead. Don't you agree? The Only Story

17. Я хочу встретить такого мужчину, который, когда узнаешь его получше, будет таким же, каким кажется, когда вы только познакомились. Я хочу встретить такого мужчину, который звонит, если пообещал позвонить и приходит домой, если пообещал, что придет. Я хочу встретить такого мужчину, которого устраивает то, какой он есть. Я хочу встретить такого мужчину, который хочет встретить такую женщину, как я. Ведь это не слишком много? Хотя, как утверждает моя подруга Марсель, это все равно, что хотеть луну с неба и звезды впридачу. Love, Etc.