129 Quotes by Bernhard Schlink

But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen her.

We make our own truths and lies....Truths are often lies and lies truths...

History is not the past as it really was. It's the shape we give it.

What a sad story, I thought for so long. Not that I now think it was happy. But I think it is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever.

Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?

If one knows what is good for another person who in turn is blind to it, then one must try to open his eyes. One has to leave him the last word, but one must talk to him, to him and not to someone else behind his back. لو يعرف الواحد ما هو الجيد لشخصٍ آخر هو في المقابل أعمى عن ذلك ، فلابدّ إذن من محاولة أن يفتح له عينيّه ، ثم يترك له الكلمة الأخيرة، لكن على الواحد أن يتحدث إليه ، إليه فقط ، وليس إلى شخصٍ آخرٍ من وراء ظهره.

It’s hard to guess ages when you’re not that old yourself and won’t be anytime soon.من الصعب تخمين عمرٍ ما دون أن تكون تجاوزته أو أوشكت على ذلك.

Dass man, wenn man sehr müde ist, sagt, man sei todmüde, fiel mir ein, und dass man, wenn man todmüde ist, doch voller Leben ist, und wenn man lebensmüde ist, schon dem Tod nahe.

Is that what makes me sad? The eagerness and belief that filled me then and exacted a pledge from life that life could never fulfill?