All my life, I've been frightened at the moment I sit down to write.

Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.

The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.

To oppression, plundering and abandonment, we respond with life.

[The captain] looked at Florentino Ariza, his invincible power, his intrepid love and was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.

When one reaches absolute power, one loses total contact with reality.

Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.