36 Quotes by E.T.A. Hoffmann

I resolved to make the fullest use of the power within me and describe as with a magic wand the circles within which all life around me should dance for my delight.

I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such magical mishaps.

Thinking, according to Knarrpanti, was in itself a dangerous undertaking, and all the more so when performed by dangerous individuals.

Perchance, dear reader, you will then believe that nothing is stranger and madder than actual life, and that this is all that the poet can conceive, as it were in the dull reflection of a dimly polished mirror.

Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear? Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions?

Wer kann es sagen, wer nur ahnen, wie weit das Geistesvermögen der Tiere geht!

It was obvious from their expressions that they believed the wellbeing of R.’s inhabitants was endangered by my youth. The visit was very enjoyable, but the horror of the previous night still clung to me.

Pepusch had a melancholy and irritable temperament; in every pleasure he was too conscious of the bitter aftertaste which comes, indeed, from the black Stygian brook that runs through the whole of our life. This made him grim, introverted, and often unjust to people around him. You may imagine, therefore, that Pepusch was not disposed to go running after pretty girls.

So stark ist der Zauber der Musik und, immer mächtiger werdend, musste er jede Fessel einer andern Kunst zerreißen."(Beethovens Instrumentalmusik)