Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt Quotes

“The biggest evil has nothing to do neither with the intelligence nor with stupidity. An idiot who doubts is less dangerous than an imbecile who knows. Everybody gets mistaken, even the genius, even the moron, and not the error is dangerous, but fanaticism of the one who believes he is not mistaken. Altruistic bastards which arm themselves with a doctrine, with an explanation system or with the believing in themselves can drag humankind extremely far in their hungry delirium of purity. Who wants to make himself an angel only proves stupidity. I am scared, Adolf, I am afraid that it isn’t over, I am afraid of where it might get to now, with the progress of arming and communication techniques. I am afraid of radical, irremediable disasters, of ossuaries, of ruin… ” – The alternative hypothesis, p424 (The letter of sister Lucia to Adolf H.)

“Burried. I am standing in the sand sarcophag, with the face towards the night. The desert seems more vast than the star field. The heart pomps blood, beats strongly, uncertain, in alert, not knowing how does it stay alive in this mineral world, so aware of it’s insignificance.

Burried…

Ho long will I be lying in the stone calmness open towards the galaxies? Maine until I myself I wil become a stone… If only I could sleep! The rest would give me the time to forget. Bt the awake, vibrant consciousness won’t give me a break for one moment; it’s watching, maybe will find a solution, to save me from death with it’s watch.

Burried…” – Night of fire, p424 (The moment when Eric is lost in the desert and reflects at his situation)

“I don’t know what amazed me most: the death of my father, or the fact that a police officer was addresing me using the polite pronoun. In any case, I crashed in the armchair.

– He threw himself in front of the train close to Marseille.

And that was weird: to travel all the way to Marseille to commit suicide! Trains are everywhere. There are as many trains, if not even more, in Paris. Decided, I will never understand dad.

– It all proves that your father was desperate and that he willingly put an end to his life.

A father that commits suicide, that could not make me feel better. After all, maybe it’s better to have a father that abandoned you; at least this way I could have imagined that he is tormented by regrets.” – Mr. Ibrahim and the floweres of the Quran, p46-47 (The moment Momo finds out his father is dead).