One Hundred Years of Solitude

"It was as though the world had not yet been born, as though everything were still chaos."

"Wars are not lost because of dead men. Wars are lost because of tired men."

"The past was a fixed and iron-bound period over which the historians held a total and absolute power."

"There is always something about the appearance of a face that leaves one sad—a harsh thing in the light, perhaps, or its mere structure, or the usual expressions."

"Nothing that exists is indispensable."

"The secret of a good old age is simply an agreement between the body and the soul to die at the same time."

"They were doomed to one hundred years of solitude."

"One could see that she had been beautiful once, perhaps even very beautiful."

"In the end, it didn't matter whether they believed or not. What mattered was that they were afraid."

"No matter what, she will always remember the taste of almonds."

"They had come from far away, attracted by the guarantee of truth."

"He was still in his pajamas and in his bare feet, but he had the air of someone more awake than the most awake men in the world."

"Macondo was already a fearful whirlwind of dust and rubble being spun about by the wrath of the biblical wind."

"The world is sad because you're thinking about the world, Aureliano. You'll feel better if you don't think about it."

"He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude."

"It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between doubt and revelation."

"The end was written from the very beginning."

"Time had stolen his face but not his soul."

"The parchments held the secrets of eternity."

"She danced as if she were conducting the stars."

"The town was cursed by its own prosperity."

"He loved her with the intensity of a dying flame."

"The revolution promised freedom but delivered tyranny."

"The church promised salvation to those who believed."

"She was as distant as the stars yet as near as breath."

"The yellow butterflies marked the presence of love."

"The market was a symphony of life and commerce."

"He spent fortunes trying to understand the universe."

"Some loves are written in the stars, others in the dust."

"The forests swallowed everything that entered them."