33 Quotes About German-literature

[W]ithin me, the longing is always new and vivid to express my life in an enduring form, in a figure that would be worthy of joining the most excellent, greeting them and being in community with them. Yes, I have always lusted after this community[.]

However useful it was to me in my present situation, there was something terrifying in the realisation that I was known to nobody, that no one could have the slightest idea who I was, or what a singular quirk of fate had brought me here, or what secrets I was concealing. I felt like a departed spirit walking on earth in which all the affection he had once enjoyed had long since perished.

The whole day, the whole night –nothing but the thought of her.

Was she then to be lost to me? Nay, for as she left this vale of sorrows, she had kindled the eternal love that now glowed within me. I now know that her death was the consummation of that love which, as she had told me, rules above the stars and has nothing in common with the things of earth. Such thoughts as these lifted me above my earthly self, and these days in the convent were truly the most blissful of my whole life.

The whole day, the whole night – nothing but the thought of her.

We see single symptoms, hear one heartbeat of the century, and want to conclude from this that it is diseased.

[B]ecause we see only a few features of the immeasurable carpet into which the earth spirit weaves the times, let us be humble. There is a surrender in which alone lies bliss and perfection and peace, a kind of contemplation, which I might call dissolution in the divine; let us strive to reach this, and not complain about the destinies of the universe.

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.

Dem Sokrates gaben sie ein Gift zu trinken, und unseren Herrn Christus schlugen sie an das Kreuz! Das geht in den letzten Zeiten nicht mehr so leicht; aber - einen Gewaltsmenschen oder einen bösen stiernackigen Pfaffen zum Heiligen oder einen tüchtigen Kerl, nur weil er uns um Kopfeslänge überwachsen war, zum Spuk und Nachtgespenst zu machen - das geht noch alle Tage.