100 Samuel Beckett Quotes From The Irish Novelist And Playwright

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born on 13 April 1906.

Samuel Beckett was an Irish playwright, novelist, theatre director, short story writer, poet, and literary translator. He used to write in both English and French.

In 1969, Samuel Beckett was presented with Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing. In 1984, he was elected as Saoi of Aosdana. Although there is a long list of the works that Samuel Beckett has written, he is famously known for his play 'Waiting for Godot' in 1953. Apart from this, he has written so many more plays like 'Human Wishes', 'Happy Days', 'That Time', 'Footfalls', 'Play', 'Come and Go', 'Eleuthera', 'Endgame', 'Neither', 'What Where', 'Catastrophe', 'Not I', 'Breath', and more. Apart from 'Waiting For Godot', 'Endgame' is another play that received high praise from the audience.

Samuel Beckett is also known for his trilogy series named 'Molloy', 'Malone Dies', and 'The Unnamable'. He has also written many novels. The names of the novels written by him are 'Murphy', 'Mercier and Camier', 'Watt', 'Dream of Fair to Middling Women', and 'How It Is'.

Samuel Beckett has written many short proses and non-fiction too. He also has some poetry collections attributed to himself. All the work Samuel Beckett has written shows that he truly believed what he said about failing - "All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

We have collected all the quotes from all the books and poems we could find for you to read. If you liked reading these quotes, you could also check 'Waiting for Godot' quotes and Robert Browning quotes.
 

In this category, we have collected the best quotes by novelist playwright Samuel Beckett. Read below for some of the best and most famous Samuel Beckett quotes.

1. "We are all born mad. Some remain so."

- Samuel Beckett.

2. "They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."

- Samuel Beckett.

3. "To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now."

- Samuel Beckett.

4. "All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

- Samuel Beckett.

5. "If I was dead, I wouldn't know I was dead. That's the only thing I have against death. I want to enjoy my death."

- Samuel Beckett.

6. "What do I know of man’s destiny? I could tell you more about radishes."

- Samuel Beckett.

7. "It sometimes happens and will sometimes happen again that I forget who I am and strut before my eyes, like a stranger."

- Samuel Beckett.

8. "Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on. You’re on earth. There’s no cure for that."

- Samuel Beckett.

9. "Make sense who may. I switch off."

- Samuel Beckett.

10. "Life is habit. Or rather life is a succession of habits."

- Samuel Beckett.

11. "Words are all we have."

- Samuel Beckett.

12. "If you do not love me I shall not be loved If I do not love you I shall not love."

- Samuel Beckett.

13. "I can't go on. I'll go on."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Unnamable'.

14. "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."

- Samuel Beckett.

15. "If by Godot I had meant God I would have said God, and not Godot."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting For Godot'.

16. "Birth was the death of him."

- Samuel Beckett.

17. "All life long, the same questions, the same answers."

- Samuel Beckett.

18. "To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now."

- Samuel Beckett.

19. "Sometimes I wonder if I’m in my right mind. Then it passes off and I’m as intelligent as ever."

- Samuel Beckett.

20. "Against the charitable gesture, there is no defense."

- Samuel Beckett.

21. "Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

- Samuel Beckett.

22. "You're on earth. There's no cure for that."

- Samuel Beckett.

23. "Habit is a compromise effected between an individual and his environment."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Proust.'

24. "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness."

- Samuel Beckett.

25. "I pause to record that I feel in the extraordinary form. Delirium perhaps."

- Samuel Beckett.

26. "Let us not waste our time in idle discourse!"

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot'.

27. "So all things limp together for the only possible."

- Samuel Beckett.

28. "James Joyce was a synthesizer, trying to bring in as much as he could. I am an analyzer, trying to leave out as much as I can."

- Samuel Beckett.

29. "There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket."

- Samuel Beckett.

Here, you will find quotes by Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist and playwright to help motivate you and give you some wisdom. You might even recognize some of these Samuel Beckett quotes from his brilliant works.

30. "We are no longer the same, you wiser but not sadder, and I sadder but not wiser, for wiser I could hardly become without grave personal inconvenience, whereas sorrow is a thing you can keep adding to all your life long, is it not, like a stamp or an egg collection, without feeling very much the worse for it, is it not."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Watt.'

31. "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Murphy.'

32. "The tears of the world are a constant quality. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stop. The same is true of the laugh."

- Samuel Beckett.

33. "The end is in the beginning and yet you go on."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Endgame.'

34. "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness."

- Samuel Beckett.

35. "God is a witness that cannot be sworn."

- Samuel Beckett.

36. "No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found."

- Samuel Beckett.

37. "It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible."

- Samuel Beckett.

38. "Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards."

- Samuel Beckett.

39. "God is love. Yes or no? No."

- Samuel Beckett.

40. "Memories are killing."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Expelled.'

41. "Don't touch me! Don't question me! Don't speak to me! Stay with me!"

- Samuel Beckett.

42. "There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot.'

43. "My mistakes are my life."

- Samuel Beckett.

44. "Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful."

- Samuel Beckett.

45. "Our vulgar perception is not concerned with other than vulgar phenomena."

- Samuel Beckett.

46. "Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich sees in the sand."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Murphy.'

47. "To every man his little cross. Till he dies. And is forgotten."

- Samuel Beckett.

48. "Dublin university contains the cream of Ireland: Rich and thick."

- Samuel Beckett.

49. "Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich sees in the sand."

- Samuel Beckett.

50. "They never lynch children, babies, no matter what they do they are whitewashed in advance."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Expelled.'

51. "You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Unnamable.'

52. "In the landscape of extinction, precision is next to godliness."

- Samuel Beckett.

53. "All mankind is us, whether we like it or not."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot'.

54. "Words are all we have."

- Samuel Beckett.

55. "With all this darkness around me, I feel less alone."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Krapp's Last Tape & Embers'.

In this section, we have collected Samuel Beckett 'Waiting for Godot' quotes and all the other things that Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett has to say. We have even listed some unique Samuel Beckett quotes on language and writing.

56. "Words are the clothes thoughts wear."

- Samuel Beckett.

57. "I am still alive then. That may come in useful."

- Samuel Beckett.

58. "Do we mean love, when we say love?"

- Samuel Beckett.

59. "That desert of loneliness and recrimination that men call love."

- Samuel Beckett.

60. "To think that in a moment all will be said, all to do again."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Calmative.'

61. "There’s the man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot.'

62. "Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity."

- Samuel Beckett.

63. "Better hope deferred than none."

- Samuel Beckett.

64. "Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back."

- Samuel Beckett.

65. "They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."

- Samuel Beckett.

66. "It means what it says."

- Samuel Beckett.

67. "To restore silence is the role of objects."

- Samuel Beckett.

68. "Enough to know no knowing."

- Samuel Beckett.

69. "How hideous is the semicolon."

- Samuel Beckett.

70. "They didn’t say in so many words that I was as well as I would ever be, but that was the implication."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The End.'

71. "The only sin is the sin of being born."

- Samuel Beckett.

72. "Habit is a great deadener."

- Samuel Beckett.

73. "Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order."

- Samuel Beckett.

74. "Dear incomprehension, it's thanks to you I'll be myself, in the end."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The Unnamable'.

75. "Tears and laughter, they are so much Gaelic to me."

- Samuel Beckett.

76. "I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them."

- Samuel Beckett.

77. "The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day."

- Samuel Beckett.

78. "No painting is more replete than Mondrian's."

- Samuel Beckett.

79. "What do we do now, now that we are happy?"

- Samuel Beckett.

80. "I played the part, you know, the part of — how shall I say, I don’t know."

- Samuel Beckett, 'The End.'

81. "Nothing is more real than nothing."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Malone Dies.'

82. "If I had the use of my body, I would throw it out the window."

- Samuel Beckett.

83. "I love order. It's my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Endgame'.

84. "People are bloody ignorant apes."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot'.

85. "We are all born mad. Some remain so."

- Samuel Beckett.

In this category, you will find Samuel Beckett 'Endgame' quotes and so much more. These Samuel Beckett quotes from the novelist playwright are meaningful yet also are quite sad and dark. Take a look at these Samuel Beckett quotes below.

86. "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Murphy.'

87. "Yes, there were times when I forgot not only who I was but that I was, forgot to be."

- Samuel Beckett.

88. "You cried for night - it falls. Now cry in darkness."

- Samuel Beckett.

89. "Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better."

- Samuel Beckett.

90. "Don't wait to be hunted to hide, that's always been my motto."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Molloy.'

91. "Ah, the old questions, the old answers, there's nothing like them!"

- Samuel Beckett, 'Endgame.'

92. "It is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Watt'.

93. "Don't look for meaning in the words. Listen to the silences."

- Samuel Beckett.

94. "It was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible."

- Samuel Beckett.

95. "Better hope deferred than none."

- Samuel Beckett.

96. "Personally of course I regret everything."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Watt.'

97. "All I say cancels out, I'll have said nothing."

- Samuel Beckett.

98. "I knew it would soon be the end, so I played the part, you know, the part of — how shall I say, I don’t know."

- Samuel Beckett.

99. "What are we doing here, that is the question."

- Samuel Beckett.

100. "What I assert, deny, question, in the present, I still can."

- Samuel Beckett, 'Molloy.'

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Samuel Beckett Quotes, then why not take a look at Arthur Miller Quotes, or Tennessee Williams Quotes?