51 Quotes by Christa Wolf

This compulsion to undertand seems to me like a stigma that I cannot get rid of and that isolates me from other people. Medea knew about such things.

Circe: Do you know what they're looking for, Medea? she asked me. They're looking for a woman who'll tell them that they're not guilty of anything; that the gods, whom they worship by chance, compel them in their undertakings. That the track of blood they leave behind is proper to their male nature as the gods have determined it.

Ci abituiamo di nuovo a dormire tranquilli. Viviamo senza risparmiarci, come ce ne fosse anche troppa di questa strana sostanza ch'è la vita, come se non dovesse avere mai fine.

She was doubtful, amid our toxic swirl of new namegiving; what she doubted was the reality of names, though she had to deal with them; she certainly felt that naming is seldom accurate, name and thing coincide only for a short time. She shrank from stamping any name on herself, the brand mark which decides which herd you belong to and which stable you should occupy.

...this is a two-fold country, and, what's more, everyone in it is two-fold, one part possibility and the other its refutal

Schwer, langsam, aber endgültig habe ich mich von dem Glauben gelöst, dass unsere menschlichen Geschicke an den Gang der Gestirne geknüpft sind. Daß dort Seelen wohnen, ähnlich den unseren, die unser Dasein betrifft, und sei es, indem sie die Fäden, die es halten, mißgünstig verwirren.

Ich lernte viel an diesem Fall. Ich lernte, daß keine Lüge zu plump ist, als daß die Leute sie nicht glauben würden, wenn sie ihrem geheimen Wunsch, sie zu glauben, entgegenkommt.

Ich habe nicht gewußt, was ein Mensch erträgt. Nun sitze ich da und muß mir sagen, auf dieser Fähigkeit, Unerträgliches zu ertragen und weiterzuleben, weiter zu tun, was zu tun man gewöhnt ist, auf dieser unheimlichen Fähigkeit beruht der Bestand des Menschengeschlechts.

أنى لنا أن نعلم اتساع عالمنا الداخلي، إن لم يكن معنا مفتاح. حمى عالية مثلاً. تشرع لنا أبوابه.