Brazil Quotes

“The really magical things are the ones that happen right in front of you. A lot of the time you keep looking for beauty, but it is already there. And if you look with a bit more intention, you see it.”
― Vik Muniz

“Ai, que preguiça!”
― Mario de Andrade

“Each drop of my blood will be an immortal flame in your conscience and will uphold the sacred will to resist. To hatred I reply with pardon, and to those who think they have defeated me, I reply with my victory. I was a slave to the Brazilian people, and today I am freeing myself for eternal life. But this people, whose slave I was, will no longer be slave to anyone. My sacrifice will remain forever in their souls and my blood will be the price for their ransom. I fought against the exploitation of Brazil. I fought against the exploitation of her people. I have fought with my whole heart. Hatred, infamy and slander have not conquered my spirit.I have given you my life. Now I offer you my death. I fear nothing. Serenely I take my first step towards eternity and leave life to enter history.”
― Getúlio Vargas

“In 1891 the Brazilian Minister of Finance decreed the abolition of history; he ordered the destruction of every document which dealt in any way with slavery or the slave trade; a nation-wide burning of the books.”
― Manu Herbstein, Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade

“Não, a vida nunca foi só a vida, nela há sonhos e fantasias que fazem a realidade ser o que é...”
― Monteiro Lobato, Cidades Mortas

“Speechless and very nearly panting, she fell back against the wall with a thump, knowing that if she lived to be ninety, she would still carry the searing mark of that kiss on her soul.
"At last," he murmured. "A way to shut you up." Christovao Santos (Chris), Sanctuary”
― Sharon K. Garner

“Please. Put the gun down and we'll talk. A beautiful woman holding a small cannon plays hell with my concentration. Christovao (Chris) Santos, Sanctuary”
― Sharon K. Garner

“The faster you go, the idler you get.”
― Ferreira Gullar

“Olha: não conheço ninguém cem por cento puro, mas conheço canalhas irretocáveis".”
― Millôr Fernandes

“Listen up, Nic," she said firmly, looking straight into his gray-blue eyes. "If you die on me out here, so help me I'll hold seances and pester you. I won't give you a moment's peace in the hereafter," she threatened in a fierce whisper. Gabrielle O'Hara, River of Dreams”
― Sharon K. Garner

“Primeiro surgiu o homem nu de cabeça baixa. Deus veio num raio. Então apareceram os bichos que comiam os homens. E se fez o fogo, as especiarias, a roupa, a espada e o dever. Em seguida se criou a filosofia, que explicava como não fazer o que não devia ser feito. Então surgiram os números racionais e a História, organizando os eventos sem sentido. A fome desde sempre, das coisas e das pessoas. Foram inventados o calmante e o estimulante. E alguém apagou a luz. E cada um se vira como pode, arrancando as cascas das feridas que alcança.”
― Fernando Bonassi, Passaporte

“What could I offer the local bad boy except my livelihood? Oh, I know. My body or my planes! Why didn't I think of that? Would you have preferred that I offer him my body, Nic, because I sure as hell wasn't going to sign over either of my planes!”
― Sharon K. Garner, River of Dreams

“For the rest of that month, on dusty afternoons, when the sun looked like a giant yolk in the cloudless sky, no one managed to get any work done at the office. Nearly all of them had the distinct feeling they would live unhappily ever after. And they did.”
― Caio Fernando Abreu, Morangos Mofados

“The Counselor brought about that miracle, he turned the wolf into the lamb, he brought him into the fold. And because he turned wolves into lambs, because he gave people who knew only fear and hatred, hunger, crime, and pillaging reasons to change their lives, because he brought spirituality where there had been cruelty, they are sending army after army to these lands to exterminate these people. How has Brazil, how has the world been overcome with such confusion as to commit such an abominable deed? Isn't that sufficient proof that the Counselor is right, that Satan has indeed taken possession of Brazil, that the Republic is the Antichrist?”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, The War of the End of the World

“. . . (S)lavery could not function without the lubricant of violence. . . The whip accompanied the lives of the enslaved from the moment they entered an Atlantic slave ship to their dying days in slavery.”
― James Walvin, A World Transformed: Slavery in the Americas and the Origins of Global Power

“The truth is, there was no one else around. Months later, not at first, one of them would say that the office was a “desert of souls.” The other one agreed, smiling, proud that he wasn’t included in that description. And little by little, between beers, they came to share sour stories about unloved and hungry women, then soccer banter, secret Santa, wish lists, fortunetellers’ addresses, a bookie,  Jogo do bicho, cards for the punch clock, the occasional pastry after work, cheap champagne in plastic cups. In a desert of souls that were also deserts, one special soul immediately recognizes another—maybe for that reason, who knows? But neither of them wondered.”
― Caio Fernando Abreu, Morangos Mofados

“For the rest of that month, on dusty afternoons, when the sun looked like a giant yolk in the cloudless sky, no one managed to get any work done at the office. Nearly all of them had the distinct feeling they would live unhappily ever after. And they did.”
― Caio Fernando Abreu, Bruna Dantas Lobato

“Ainda é preciso dizer? O Brasil foi fundado sobre um cemitério indígena. Todo dia é alguém que some, mano.”
― Bruno Ribeiro, Porco de Raça

“A luz mal chegara na sede de Jaguatinga, município que abrigava o distrito, imagine em Tanatópole. E há quem diga que a luz nunca entrou de verdade na casa da família Tainha.”
― Zé Wellington, Mata-mata: versão estendida

“Few historians have really delved into the spirit of the Brazilian people and their condition. To understand the condition of the real Brazil, it is necessary to understand that colonial isolationism remained. During the colonial period, Brazil was kept away from everything, so as not to attract the greed of other nations and conquerors. Preserved in this state of isolation, which was anything but splendid, the liberal and socialist ideas that brought about great changes in Europe and the rest of the world were always received here with due caution – which was not harmful. The rulers themselves, fearing losing power, made a point of granting small advantages to the people, and, by giving them crumbs with a great samba plot, they avoided greater losses. Brazilians are sentimental and, in the same way, they are irascible; therefore, they are easily manipulated. Isolation did not remain without costs, as it generated misery, delay and ignorance among the people. On the other hand, it produced a lazy, indolent and belligerent elite, averse to work, knowledge and the defense of the greatest national interests. In other words, keeping the Brazilian people in a state of minority was the price to pay for maintaining this tropical nobility.”
― Geverson Ampolini

“I was awestruck by Rio – the way the ocean, city and emerald mountains merged into each other and held hands.”
― Dana Da Silva, The Shift: A Memoir

“Our conversation was deep, so he lightened the mood in a second, finding an easy distraction in front of us – taking the call to join in with the cheering, and I followed. A Mexican wave got too big to ignore, pulling us to our feet, popping us out of our bubble, reminding us that we were not alone. But back down in our seats, our Gemini souls found more words, our minds unable to stop.”
― Dana Da Silva, The Shift: A Memoir

“The existential duality of Brazilians: conservative in speech and excessively liberal in acting and thinking.”
― Geverson Ampolini

“A sociedade setecentista-oitocentista baiana não se dividia drasticamente entre dois extremos nítidos e polarizados: o dos senhores e o dos escravos. Este dualismo esquemático não encontra correspondência factual naquele mundo. Entre os dois extremos da hierarquia ou escala social, circulava uma população livre consideravelmente numerosa–faixa intermediária formada em grande parte por uma gente mestiça. Mais do que isso: havia escravos e ex-escravos que eram proprietários de escravos. Negros e negras escravistas. A primeira coisa que ex-escravos faziam, depois de ter a sua carta de alforria, era comprar para si um ou mais escravos, usando-os com os mesmos propósitos dos senhores brancos: tê-los a seu serviço pessoal e empregá-los para obter lucros, fosse no comércio ou na prostituição. Mas não só escravos: investiam igualmente em bens móveis e imóveis.”
― Antonio Risério, As sinhás pretas da Bahia: Suas escravas, suas joias

“Antes do Século XIX–e, mais especialmente, antes da configuração do movimento abolicionista–, nenhum grupo étnico ou social, no Brasil, foi contra a escravidão enquanto sistema. Pessoas e grupos reagiam contra a sua própria e particular escravização, mas não contra o escravismo como um todo.”
― Antonio Risério, As sinhás pretas da Bahia: Suas escravas, suas joias

“O barroco é a linguagem da abundância, do transbordamento, da prodigalidade. Daí a equação de [Severo] Sarduy: barroco = jogo; arte clássica = trabalho.”
― Antonio Risério, As sinhás pretas da Bahia: Suas escravas, suas joias

“Em todo o reino português, a arte da ourivesaria estava, em tese, restrita apenas a homens livres, de origem europeia. O contato constante dos artesãos com materiais nobres, amplamente empregados na confecção de obras sacras, era o que justificava, já em Portugal, a proibição da manufatura a pessoas tidas como de sangue impuro–no caso português, especificamente judeus e mouros. Essa linha de pensamento chegou ao Brasil e aqui o ofício foi negado a negros e índios–proibição que, na realidade, nunca foi efetiva, já que a mão de obra escrava era a responsável por grande parte dos trabalhos manuais. [Joias de Crioula, 2011.]”
― Laura Cunha, Thomas Milz

“É óbvio que essas mulheres donas de joias e escravos, entre outras coisas, resistiam e reagiam. Mas fizeram muito mais que isso. Sua ação foi maior, mais dinâmica e mais rica do que meramente negadora, paralisante, defensiva. E ainda havia a ambivalência: sinhás pretas incorporavam modelos e copiavam práticas de sinhás brancas; senhores cobriam suas escravas com joias, ao tempo em que autoridades tentavam proibir tanto luxo; etc. Em suma, essas mulheres negras e mulatas foram muito menos vítimas do que agentes vitoriosas.”
― Antonio Risério, As sinhás pretas da Bahia: Suas escravas, suas joias

“... a tese de Florestan Fernandes, estabelecendo que os escravos foram entregues ao deus-dará e à miséria depois da abolição, pode começar a ser desconstruída desde aqui. Primeiro, por se chocar com a notável e comprovada ascensão social de pretos e mulatos em nosso Século XIX, de Pedro II aos primeiros dias republicanos. Depois, pelo fato de que, no 13 de maio de 1888, escravos praticamente inexistiam no país. Terceiro, porque a ascensão social negromestiça se deu antes, durante e depois da abolição. Quarto, no caso particular da Bahia, as informações indicam que não houve maior alteração na situação dos escravos pós-abolição. Os agora ex-escravos continuaram exercendo ofícios tradicionais, além de avançar em outras direções. A conjuntura não foi diversa no Rio de Janeiro.”
― Antonio Risério, As sinhás pretas da Bahia: Suas escravas, suas joias

“Egypt had its plagues, but in Brazil we have the following: a gigantic and very rich territory, the most corrupt political class in the world, authorities afraid to enforce the law, a lascivious, indolent and coarse people.”
― Geverson Ampolini