A man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored.
Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there's always something to be thankful for. And each morning, when the sky brightened and light began to flood my cell, I agreed with her.
After another moment's silence she mumbled that I was peculiar, that that was probably why she loved me but that one day I might disgust her for the very same reason.
A fool is always pleased with what he says, and, besides, he always says more than he needs to.
A fool is always pleased with what he says, and, besides, he always says more than he needs to.
Silence is always beautiful, and a silent person is always more beautiful than one who talks.
How does it come about that what an intelligent man expresses is much stupider than what remains inside him?
The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.
To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.
What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
Learning and enjoyment are the secret to a fulfilled life. Learning without enjoyment wears you down, enjoyment without learning dulls you.
Richard David Precht in Wer bin ich – und wenn ja, wie viele?
Maybe a thing has to be smart enough to lose its mind.
Once she told me I looked like the sun to her, because of my hair. I asked her if I shined like the sun, and she told me, "No, Daddy, you shine more like the moon, when it's dark outside."
Only a box of birds, Malorie thinks. Yet, it does feel like progress.
The moment between deciding to open your eyes and then actually doing it is as scary a thing as there is in the new world.
It's better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.
How can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they can't lift their heads to gaze upon them?
You can smell it, too. Death. Dying. Decay. The sky is falling, the sky is dying, the sky is dead.
"Is he friendly?" Tom says quietly. "I've discovered," Jules says, "that a dog will become fast friends with the people who feed him."
Man is the creature he fears.
Don't waste your love on somebody who doesn't value it.
I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart.
Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don't go along with that. The memories I value most, I don't ever see them fading.
Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.
But then again I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but for our love to fade and die.
When it was too late for rescue, it was still early enough for revenge.
How is it possible to hate so deeply for deeds not yet done?
A couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more.
What use is a god with boundless mercy, sir? You mock me as a pagan, yet the gods of my ancestors pronounce clearly their ways and punish severely when we break their laws. Your Christian god of mercy gives men licence to pursue their greed, their lust for land and blood, knowing a few prayers and a little penance will bring forgiveness and blessing.
The danger isn't the river's speed, friend, but its slowness.
We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to.
All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.
You say you're sure? Sure that you're in love? How can you know it? You think love is so simple?
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.
If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.
The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.
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?
The giant, once well buried, now stirs. When soon he rises, as surely he will, the friendly bonds between us will prove as knots young girls make with the stems of small flowers.
Indeed - why should I not admit it? - in that moment, my heart was breaking.
A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.
There's lots of good fish in the sea... maybe... but the vast masses seem to be mackerel or herring, and if you're not mackerel or herring yourself, you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea.
Perhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe. The others have a certain stickiness, they stick to the mass.
Sex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to the same thing.
I only want one thing of men, and that is, that they should leave me alone.
It's no good trying to get rid of your own aloneness. You've got to stick to it all your life. Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At times! But you have to wait for the times. Accept your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when they come. But they've got to come. You can't force them.
A little morphine in all the air. It would be wonderfully refreshing for everyone.
