Flowers for Algernon is the title of a science fiction short story and a novel by American writer Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960. Profoundly inspirational Flowers For Algernon quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
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Famous Flowers For Algernon Quotes
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other. -The Republic, Preface
There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection. — Flowers For Algernon
A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger. — Flowers For Algernon
Although we know the end of the maze holds death (and it is something I have not always known–not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could happen only to other people), I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being–one of many ways–and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming. — Flowers For Algernon
Don’t think about it… Feel it. Let it sweep over you like the sea without trying to understand. — Alice
Downhill. Thoughts of suicide to stop it all now while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I’ve just borrowed it for a while, and now I’m being asked to return it. — Charlie Gordon
Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men. — Flowers For Algernon
He really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. — Charlie Gordon
Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together. — Flowers For Algernon
He [Nemur] doesn’t realize that find out who I really am – the meaning of my total existence – involves knowing the possibilities of my future as well as my past, where I’m going as well as where I’ve been. Although we know the end of the maze holds death (and it is something I have not always known – not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could only happen to other people), I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being – one of many ways – and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming. — Charlie Gordon
How can I make him understand that he did not create me? He makes the same mistake as the others when they look at a feeble-minded person and laugh because they don’t understand there are human feelings involved. — Flowers For Algernon
How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence. — Flowers For Algernon
I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been. — Charlie Gordon
I dint know mice were so smart. — Charlie Gordon
I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends. — Charlie Gordon
I never knew … that [they] liked to have me around … to make fun of me. — Charlie Gordon
I never new before that I was dumber than a mouse. — Charlie Gordon
I never stopped wanting to be … the smart boy … so that she would love me. — Charlie Gordon
I see now that the path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming. — Flowers For Algernon
I thought they’d be happy for me. They’re supposed to be my friends. — Charlie Gordon
I was a person before the operation. In case you forgot. — Charlie Gordon
I will have lived a thousand normal lives by what I may add to others. — Charlie Gordon
I’m a person. I was somebody before I went under the surgeon’s knife. And I have to love someone. — Charlie Gordon
I’m not close to him.’ He looked at me defiantly. But he’s put his whole life into this. He’s no Freud or Jung or Pavlov or Watson, but he’s doing something important and I respect his dedication – maybe even more because he’s just an ordinary man trying to do a great man’s work, while the great men are all busy making bombs. — Flowers For Algernon
In spite of the operation Charlie was still with me. — Charlie Gordon
Intelligence … that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn. — Charlie Gordon
Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain. — Charlie Gordon
Just leave me alone. I’m not myself. I’m falling apart, and I don’t want you here. — Flowers For Algernon
I thought they’d be happy for me. They’re supposed to be my friends. — Flowers For Algernon
Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart. — Charlie Gordon
My feeling for you won’t change because I’m becoming intelligent. I’ll only love you more. — Flowers For Algernon
My God!… Sculpture with a living element… It could be self-perpetuating art, a creative experience for the art lover. You get another mouse and when they have babies, you always keep one to reproduce the living element. Your work of art attains immortality. — Fay
My own mental deterioration will be quite rapid. — Charlie Gordon
I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been. — Charlie Gordon
No one really starts anything new, Mrs. Nemur. Everyone builds on other men’s failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts. — Flowers For Algernon
Now I know I had a family and I was a person just like evryone. — Charlie Gordon
Now I understand that one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you’ve believed in all your life aren’t true, and that nothing is what it appears to be. — Flowers For Algernon
One of the things that confuses me is never really knowing when something comes up from my past, whether it really happened that way, or if that was the way it seemed to be at the time, or if I’m inventing it. — Charlie Gordon
Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most. — Flowers For Algernon
How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence. — Flowers For Algernon
Please … put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard. — Charlie Gordon
Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most. — Charlie Gordon
Although we know the end of the maze holds death (and it is something I have not always known–not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could happen only to other people), I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being–one of many ways–and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming. — Flowers For Algernon
Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men. — Flowers For Algernon
Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together. — Flowers For Algernon
“The more intelligent you become, the more problems you’ll have. — Flowers For Algernon
I’m not close to him.’ He looked at me defiantly. ‘But he’s put his whole life into this. He’s no Freud or Jung or Pavlov or Watson, but he’s doing something important and I respect his dedication – maybe even more because he’s just an ordinary man trying to do a great man’s work, while the great men are all busy making bombs. — Flowers For Algernon
So this is how a person can come to despise himself-knowing he’s doing the wrong thing and not being able to stop. — Flowers For Algernon
Strange about learning; the farther I go the more I see that I never knew even existed. A short while ago I foolishly thought I could learn everything – all the knowledge in the world. Now I hope only to be able to know of its existence, and to understand one grain of it. Is there time? — Flowers For Algernon
I see now that the path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming. — Flowers For Algernon
Thank God for books and music and things I can think about. — Flowers For Algernon
The more intelligent you become, the more problems you’ll have. — Dr. Strauss
There are so many doors to open I am impatient to apply my own knowledge and skills to the problem. — Flowers For Algernon
This day was good for me. I’ve got to stop this childish worrying about myself – my past and my future. Let me give something of myself to others. I’ve got to use my knowledge and my skills to work in the field of increasing human intelligence. Who is better equipped? Who else has lived in both worlds? — Charlie Gordon
What we have … is more than most people find in a lifetime. — Charlie Gordon
P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard. — Charlie Gordon
My feeling for you won’t change because I’m becoming intelligent. I’ll only love you more. — Charlie Gordon
He makes the same mistake as the others when they look at a feeble-minded person and laugh because they don’t understand there are human feelings involved. — Flowers For Algernon
What’s right? Ironic that all my intelligence doesn’t help me solve a problem like this. — Charlie Gordon
Who’s to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who’s to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say? — Flowers For Algernon
Why am I always looking at life through a window? — Flowers For Algernon
