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“After all, there’s no turning back the clock now. One can’t be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.” (The Remains of the Day Quotes)
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“All you decent, well-meaning gentlemen, let me ask you, have you any idea what sort of place the world is becoming all around you? The days when you could act out of your noble instincts are over. Except of course, you here in Europe don’t yet seem to know it.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“As I say, I have never in all these years thought of the matter in quite this way; but then it is perhaps in the nature of coming away on a trip such as this that one is prompted towards such surprising new perspectives on topics one imagined one had long ago thought thoroughly.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“But then, I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one’s past for such ‘turning points’, one is apt to start seeing them everywhere.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“But this small episode is as good an illustration as any of the hazards of uttering witticisms. By the very nature of a witticism, one is given very little time to assess its various possible repercussions before one is called to give voice to it, and one gravely risks uttering all manner of unsuitable things if one has not first acquired the necessary skill and experience.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Dinner will be served at the usual time and I am pleased to say there will be no discernible traces left of the recent occurrence by that time.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“For a great many people, the evening is the most enjoyable part of the day. Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“I can’t even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one has to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that?”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“I do not think I responded immediately, for it took me a moment or two to fully digest these words of Miss Kenton. Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed- why should I not admit it? – at that moment, my heart was breaking.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“If some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Indeed why should I not admit it? In that moment, my heart was breaking.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“It’s a great privilege, after all, to have been given a part to play, however small, on the world’s stage.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Its was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one’s development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one’s ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“One thing I have witnessed is that public life can change people unrecognizably in a few short years.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in – particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“The obsessions with eloquence and general knowledge would appear to be ones that emerged with our generation, probably in the wake of Mr. Marshall, when lesser men trying to emulate his greatness mistook the superficial for the essence.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“The rest of my life stretches out as an emptiness before me.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“Today’s world is too foul a place for fine and noble instincts.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“We may now understand better, too, why my father was so fond of the story of the butler who failed to panic on discovering a tiger under the dining table; it was because he knew instinctively that somewhere in this story lay the kernel of what true ‘dignity’ is.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“What can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“What is the point of worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“What is the point of worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took?”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“What occurs under the public gaze with so much pomp and ceremony is often the conclusion, or mere ratification, of what has taken place over weeks or months within the walls of such houses.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
“You’ve got to enjoy yourself. The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it. That’s how I look at it. Ask anybody, they’ll all tell you. The evening’s the best part of the day.”
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day
