In a sudden and soundless eruption, as if he has fallen into a waking dream, a stream of images pours down, images of women he has known on two continents, some from so far away in time that he barely recognizes them. Like leaves blown on the wind, pell-mell, they pass before him. A fair field full of folk: hundreds of lives all tangled with his. He holds his breath, willing the vision to continue. What has happened to them, all those women, all those lives? Are there moments when they too, or some of them, are plunged without warning into the ocean of memory? The German girl: is it possible that at this very instant she is remembering the man who picked her up on the roadside in Africa and spent the night with her? Enriched: that was the word the newspapers picked on to jeer at. A stupid word to let slip, under the circumstances, yet now, at this moment, he would stand by it. By Melanie, by the girl in Touws River; by Rosalind, Bev Shaw, Soraya: by each of them he was enriched, and by the others too, even the least of them, even the failures. Like a flower blooming in his breast, his heart floods with thankfulness. J.M. Coetzee
About This Quote

It is interesting how a moment of happiness can leave us with a feeling of being overwhelmed. The feeling that we do not have enough time to enjoy the moment, even though we know it will not last forever. We rush through life not taking the time to notice or appreciate all that surrounds us. We never have enough time to see all the beauty around us, either in nature or in people. But, when we take the time to look, to stop and appreciate what we see, suddenly we realize that it is this moment that will never be duplicated again.

Source: Disgrace

Some Similar Quotes
  1. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  2. I no longer believed in the idea of soul mates, or love at first sight. But I was beginning to believe that a very few times in your life, if you were lucky, you might meet someone who was exactly right for you. Not because... - Lisa Kleypas
  3. I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but... - Haruki Murakami
  4. A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other... Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever - Dave Matthews Band
  5. For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home. - Stephanie Perkins
More Quotes By J.M. Coetzee
  1. I want to find a way of speaking to fellow human beings that will be cool rather than heated, philosophical rather than polemical, that will bring enlightenment rather than seeking to divide us into the righteous and the sinners, the saved and the damned, the...
  2. In a world of chance is there a better and a worse? We yield to a stranger's embrace or give ourselves to the waves; for the blink of an eyelid our vigilance relaxes; we are asleep; and when we awake, we have lost the direction...
  3. Die Wahrheit wird nicht im Zorn gesprochen. Die Wahrheit, wenn sie denn gesprochen wird, wird im Geist der Liebe gesprochen.
  4. The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.
  5. Asymmetrie [macht] Menschen unglücklich.
Related Topics