Love in the Time of Cholera Quotes
Florentino, rejected by the beautiful Fermina at a young age, devotes much of his adult life to carnal affairs as a desperate attempt to heal his broken heart.
Florentino Ariza: Please allow me to wipe the slate clean. Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself.
Florentino Ariza: [closing scene, in bed together, but clothed] I love you, my crowned goddess. We're going to stay like this.
Fermina Urbino: You can't mean it.
Florentino Ariza: From the moment I was born, I have never said anything I did not mean.
Fermina Urbino: [exhales, almost trembling] And how long do you... you think we can... stay like this?
Fermina Urbino: Forever.
Fermina Urbino: Forever?
Florentino Ariza: [cut to view of the sun-lit boat anchored in the midst of the river] After 53 years, seven months and 11 days and night, my heart was at last fulfilled. And I discovered, to my joy, that it is life and not death that has no limits.
Fermina Urbino: You can't mean it.
Florentino Ariza: From the moment I was born, I have never said anything I did not mean.
Fermina Urbino: [exhales, almost trembling] And how long do you... you think we can... stay like this?
Fermina Urbino: Forever.
Fermina Urbino: Forever?
Florentino Ariza: [cut to view of the sun-lit boat anchored in the midst of the river] After 53 years, seven months and 11 days and night, my heart was at last fulfilled. And I discovered, to my joy, that it is life and not death that has no limits.
Fermina Urbino: The only thing that hurts me is that I don't have enough strength to give you the beating that you deserve for being so insolent and evil-minded. But you will leave this house right now and I swear to you on my mother's grave that you will not set foot in it again as long as I live. Life crippled that poor man 50 years ago, because he was too young and now you want to do it because we are too old.
Florentino Ariza: [Surprising her in her house] Fermina I have waited for this opportunity for 51 years, nine months and four days. That is... how long I have loved you from the first moment I cast eyes on you un... until now.
Fermina Urbino: Florentino Ariza... get out of here! Get out!
Fermina Urbino: [cut to Ariza reading a letter from Fermina while we hear her words:] Florentino Ariza, you are a dreadful, insensitive human being. How dare you enter my house on the day my beloved husband died and utter such monstrous, ridiculous sentiments? You have put me in a mortal rage, which has caused me to think about you without wanting to. Do you understand? I do not want to think about you. Stay out of my life.
Fermina Urbino: Florentino Ariza... get out of here! Get out!
Fermina Urbino: [cut to Ariza reading a letter from Fermina while we hear her words:] Florentino Ariza, you are a dreadful, insensitive human being. How dare you enter my house on the day my beloved husband died and utter such monstrous, ridiculous sentiments? You have put me in a mortal rage, which has caused me to think about you without wanting to. Do you understand? I do not want to think about you. Stay out of my life.
Ricardo Lighthouse: Why are you so successful with women?
Florentino Ariza: Um... because they see in me someone... guilty. In need of love. Someone who will not harm them. Hmmph. My heart has more rooms than a whore house, Ricardo.
Ricardo Lighthouse: What number are you on now?
Florentino Ariza: Prepare yourself for a shock. I'm on number 622.
Ricardo Lighthouse: Impossible.
Florentino Ariza: I speak the truth - 622.
Florentino Ariza: Um... because they see in me someone... guilty. In need of love. Someone who will not harm them. Hmmph. My heart has more rooms than a whore house, Ricardo.
Ricardo Lighthouse: What number are you on now?
Florentino Ariza: Prepare yourself for a shock. I'm on number 622.
Ricardo Lighthouse: Impossible.
Florentino Ariza: I speak the truth - 622.
