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There is truly only one misfortune: that of not being born.

— Machado de Assis As Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881)

Verdadeiramente há só uma desgraça: é não nascer.

Original text (Portuguese)

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More quotes by Machado de Assis

Life is so beautiful that even the idea of death must be born before it can be realized.

Dom Casmurro (1899)

The best definition of love in the world is not worth one kiss from the girl you love.

Life…is an enormous lottery: the prizes are few, the failures innumerable. Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next. That's life.

Teoria do medalhão (1881)

The greatest sin, after the initial sin, is its publication.

Quincas Borba (1891)

How many wicked intentions climb aboard a pure and innocent phrase, after it is already on its way! It is enough to make one suspect that lying is, many a time, as involuntary as breathing.

Dom Casmurro (1899)

All Machado de Assis quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Machado de Assis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.