Al Álvarez said this quote

“ Suicide may be a declaration of bankruptcy which passes judgement on a life as one long history of failures. But it is a history which also amounts at least to this one decision which, by its very finality, is not wholly a failure. Some kind of minimal freedom — the freedom to die in one's own way and in one's own time — has been salvaged from the wreck of all those unwanted necessities. ”

Famous Quotes of Al Álvarez

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No man kills himself unless there is something wrong with his life.

~ Al Álvarez

Al Álvarez Death Suicide

Suicide creates his own society: to shut yourself off from other people in some dingy, rented box and stare, like Melville's Bartleby, day in and day out at the dead wall outside your window is in itself a rejection of the world which is said to be rejecting you. It is a way of saying, like Bartleby, 'I prefer not to' to every offer and every possibility, which is a condition no amount of social engineering will cure.

~ Al Álvarez

Al Álvarez Bartleby Box Cure Dead Dingy Offer People Possibility Rejection Shut Social Engineering Society Suicide Wall Window World

Suicide is a confession of failure. And like divorce, it is shrouded in excuses and rationalizations spun endlessly to disguise the simple fact that all one's energy, passion, appetite and ambition have been aborted.

~ Al Álvarez

Al Álvarez Aborted Ambition Appetite Confession Disguise Divorce Energy Excuses Failure Passion Rationalizations Suicide

From that altitude, the world looked calm and vivid and possible. But by the time we landed at Prestwick the clouds were down like the black cap on a hanging judge.

~ Al Álvarez

Al Álvarez Depression