Peter Altenberg > Quotes

“There are only two things that can destroy a healthy man: love trouble, ambition, and financial catastrophe. And that's already three things, and there are a lot more.”
― Peter Altenberg

“It is sad to be an exception. But not to be one is even sadder.”
― Peter Altenberg

“I never dreamed of being Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocket mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart.”
― Peter Altenberg

“For a man the whole world is his love. For a woman love is her whole world.”
― Peter Altenberg

“Art is art and life is life, but to live life artistically; that is the art of life”
― Peter Altenberg

“God thinks within geniuses, dreams within poets, and sleeps within the rest of us.”
― Peter Altenberg

“Nobody believes in anything without an inner feeling that it can be realized. This is the only source of dreamlike powers”
― Peter Altenberg

“In the Volksgarten “I’d like to have a blue balloon! A blue balloon is what I’d like!” “Here’s a blue balloon for you, Rosamunde!” It was explained to her then that there was a gas inside that was lighter than the air in the atmosphere, as a consequence of which, etc. etc. “I’d like to let it go—,” she said, just like that. “Wouldn’t you rather give it to that poor little girl over there?” “No, I want to let it go—!” She lets the balloon go, keeps looking after it, till it disappears in the blue sky. “Aren’t you sorry now you didn’t give it to the poor little girl?” “Yes, I should’ve given it to the poor little girl.” “Here’s another blue balloon, give her this one!” “No, I want to let this one go too up into the blue sky!”— She does so. She is given a third blue balloon. She goes over to the poor little girl on her own, gives this one to her, saying: “You let it go!” “No,” says the poor little girl, peering enraptured at the balloon. In her room it flew up to the ceiling, stayed there for three days, got darker, shriveled up and fell down dead, a little black sack. Then the poor little girl thought to herself: “I should have let it go outside in the park, up into the blue sky, I’d’ve kept on looking after it, kept on looking—!” In the meantime, the rich little girl gets another ten balloons, and one time Uncle Karl even buys her all thirty balloons in one batch. Twenty of them she lets fly up into the sky and gives ten to poor children. From then on she had absolutely no more interest in balloons. “The stupid balloons—,” she said. Whereupon Aunt Ida observed that she was rather advanced for her age! The poor little girl dreamed: “I should have let it go up into the blue sky, I’d’ve kept on looking and looking—!”
― Peter Altenberg, Telegrams of the Soul

“There are only two things that can destroy a healthy [hu]man: love trouble, ambition, and financial catastrophe. And that's already three things, and there are a lot more.”
― Peter Altenberg

“The young woman thought: “You’ve got to be old or mad. But we stayed too young. Is it any fault of ours? We still soak up the juices like a sapling. We rob nature just to exist. Oh and by the way, the earth still has a molten middle, and its chimneys sometimes spew forth and bury places blossoming with life. Isn’t that so? Bane of my existence, fire of my soul, Edgar, my beloved, you keep me young, don’t let me grow old!”
― Peter Altenberg, Telegrams of the Soul

“I checked into the quiet little room on the fifth floor of the good old Stadthotel with two pairs of socks and two large bottles of slivovitz for unseen eventualities.”
― Peter Altenberg, Telegrams of the Soul