Waiting for Godot Estragon Quotes

Estragon > Vladimir

Quote 1

ESTRAGON
Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
VLADIMIR
What is terrible is to have thought.
ESTRAGON
But did that ever happen to us?
VLADIMIR
Where are all these corpses from?
ESTRAGON
These skeletons.
VLADIMIR
Tell me that.
ESTRAGON
True.
VLADIMIR
We must have thought a little.
ESTRAGON
At the very beginning.
VLADIMIR
A charnel-house! A charnel-house!
ESTRAGON
You don't have to look.
VLADIMIR
You can't help looking.
ESTRAGON
True. (2.154-166)

OK, we’ll admit, this exchange at first seems entirely without logic. But it’s actually just a series of conversations all taking place at once, with several of the responses interchangeable and taking place in more than one back-and-forth. Vladimir’s statement that it is terrible to have thought is continued when Estragon replies "True" several lines below. The question of the corpses is abandoned until Vladimir realizes they come from a charnel-house. Didi ignores Estragon’s question about mercies, so Estragon resumes this strand of thought himself with the line "But did that ever happen to us?" (likely referring to acts of mercy, although one can’t be sure if this is part of a different exchange).

Estragon > Vladimir

Quote 2

ESTRAGON
I'm going.
He does not move. (1.67)

The ability to choose is rendered useless when a decision cannot be joined with action. This seems constantly to be the case in Waiting for Godot.

Estragon > Vladimir

Quote 3

ESTRAGON
Who believes him?
VLADIMIR
Everybody. It's the only version they know.
ESTRAGON
People are bloody ignorant apes. (1.87-89)

Waiting for Godot argues that people are driven to beliefs by habit, popularity, and ignorance, rather than by conscious choice.