Hugo von Hofmannsthal > Quotes

“Reality lies in the greatest enchantment you have ever experienced.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“To be modern means to like antique furniture - and youthful neurosis.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Words performed through music can express what language alone had exhausted”
― Hugo Von Hofmannsthal

“the activity of modern poets stands under the decree of necessity, as though they were building a pyramid, the monstruos residence of a dead King or an unborn God.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Selected Prose

“The soul is never wholly assembled, except in delight.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“So las ich falsch in deinem Aug, dem tiefen?
Kein heimlich Sehnen sah ich heiß dort funkeln?
Es birgt zu deiner Seele keine Pforte

Dein feuchter Blick? Die Wünsche, die dort schliefen,
Wie stille Rosen in der Flut, der dunkeln,
Sind, wie dein Plaudern: seellos... Worte, Worte?”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gedichte.

“I wanted to show that the fables and mythic tales which the ancients have handed down to us and in which painters and sculptors never cease to find mindless pleasure are the hieroglyphics of a secret, inexhaustible wisdom. I sometimes thought I felt its breath, as though coming from behind a veil.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, The Lord Chandos Letter and Other Writings

“He seeks life where it is to be found: in all that is most delicate, in the folds of things.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Andreas

“Das Leben flieht wie Sand dahin,
Doch schwer umkehret sich der Sinn.”
― Hugo Von Hoffmannsthal

“La escritura es un pequeño equívoco sin importancia, tan pequeño que nos hace casi mudos”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Was weiß denn ich vom Menschenleben?
Bin freilich scheinbar drin gestanden,
Aber ich hab es höchstens verstanden,
Konnte mich nie darein verweben.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Ein sonderbar Ding ist die Zeit. Wenn man so hineinlebt, ist sie rein gar nichts. Aber dann auf einmal, dann spürt man nichts als sie.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Cada prazer da vida se funda no retorno regular das coisas externas. A alternância do dia e da noite, das estações, das flores e dos frutos, e cada coisa que nos vem ao encontro periodicamente, porque nós podemos e devemos apreciá-las, estes são os verdadeiros estímulos da vida terrena. Quanto mais abertos estamos a tais fruições, tanto mais nos sentimos felizes'
Goethe”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“Your little sister
Has tossed her
Untied hair forward
Like a living veil,
Like a fragrant hedge,
And peers, with such eyes!
Through a fragrant veil,
Through a dark hedge ...
How sweet it is to only
Think of such little things.

Fruits have ripened
On all the longing branches
In your nightly garden,
Chinese lanterns like red fruits
Sway and illuminate
The longing branches
Rustled by the night wind
In your little garden ...

How sweet it is to only
Think of such little things.”
― Hugo von Hoffmannstahl

“Il n'y a rien de coupable. L'instant n'est pas coupable, c'est seulement de vouloir le retenir qui n'est pas permis. Seul le fait de se cramponner à ce qui ne se laisse pas retenir... (89)”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, L'homme difficile

“Um homem que morre aos trinta e cinco anos é em cada momento da sua vida um homem que morrerá aos trinta e cinco anos. A isso Goethe chamava 'enteléquia”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“When in my hunting lodge I drank the warm foaming milk which an unkempt wench had drained into a wooden pail from the udder of a beautiful gentle~yed cow, the sen­sation was no different from that which I experienced when, seated on a bench built into the window of my study, my mind absorbed the sweet and foaming nourishment from a book.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Apenas naquilo que o homem faz, segue fazendo, naquilo em que persevera, ele mostra caráter.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“É uma a faculdade que mais importa desenvolver nas crianças: a de sentir que o divino se manifesta em nossa imediata vizinhança. Porém, muitas coisas que fazemos e deixamos fazer tendem a distruir tal faculdade, endurecendo o coração”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“Quem envelhece reconhece que permanecemos constantemente em culpa, através de todas as circunstâncias e combinações da vida; mas em cada homem habita também a sua sorte de inocência; e é esta que o sustenta, sem que ele mesmo saiba como”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“As circunstâncias têm menos poder de nos fazer felizes ou infelizes do que se acredita; mas a antecipação das circunstâncias futuras na fantasia têm um poder imenso”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“Depth must be hidden. Where? On the surface.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Thoughts are apples on the tree,
Not meant for anyone in particular,
But they end up belonging
To the one who takes them.”
― Hugo von Hoffmannstahl

“As situações são simbólicas; é uma fraqueza dos homens de hoje tratá-las analiticamente e dissolver com isso sua magia”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici

“Merk dies allein: nicht eine einzige Stunde kommt zweimal im Leben, Nicht ein Wort, nicht eines Blickes Ungreifbares Nichts ist je Ungeschehn zu machen, was Du getan hast, mußt du tragen, So das Lächeln wie den Mord!”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Der Kaiser und die Hexe

“Nothing becomes reality in the political life of a nation that was not present in its literature as spirit.”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“Vergeben Sie mir diese Schilderung, aber denken Sie nicht, daß es Mitleid war, was mich erfüllte. [...] Es war viel mehr und viel weniger als Mitleid: ein ungeheures Anteilnehmen, ein Hinüberfließen in jene Geschöpfe oder ein Fühlen, daß ein Fluidum des Lebens und Todes, des Traumes und Wachens für einen Augenblick in sie hinübergeflossen ist [...].”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal

“A profunda ignorância é o que inspira o tom dogmático".
La Bruyère”
― Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il libro degli amici