Arthur Schnitzler > Quotes

“Oh, we do not understand death, we never understand it; creatures are only truly dead when everyone else has died who knew them.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Selected Short Fiction

“Am I sure? Only as sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“There are all kinds of flight from responsibility. There is a flight into death, a flight into sickness, and finally a flight into stupidity.”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“Αν υπήρχε Θεός τότε ο τρόπος με τον οποίο οι πιστοί τον τιμούν θα αποτελούσε βλασφημία.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, My Youth in Vienna

“Man kann jemanden wahnsinnig lieben und muss doch um acht Uhr früh aufstehen, nicht wahr?”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Halbzwei

“When you cannot love or hate anymore, then where is the charm of life?”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“You never so much want to be happy with a woman as when you know that you're ceasing to care for her.”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“Ghosts!—They exist, they exist! Dead things playing at being alive.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Selected Short Fiction

“It seemed to him a thousand times worse to stand there as the only one unmasked amid a host of masks, than suddenly to stand naked among those fully dressed.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“Bertha divined what an enormous wrong had been wrought against the world in that the longing for pleasure is placed in woman just as in man; and that with women that longing is a sin, demanding expiation, if the yearning for pleasure is not at the same time a yearning for motherhood.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Vienna 1900: Games With Love And Death

“Lebensklugheit bedeutet: Alle Dinge möglichst wichtig, aber keines völlig ernst zu nehmen.”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“We all act parts, and wise is he who knows it.”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“The ovation roared around him. He felt nothing in particular, hardly even the embarrassment he had feared. He had to go up again—this time without Fräulein Gasteiner, and it was a little peculiar to him to hear the noise of clapping hands and the loud shouts of "Bravo". He bowed several times, turned to the door and then, just as the clapping was getting weaker, he heard a voice from slightly behind him, or to the side—he couldn't quite tell—but the words were perfectly distinct, no matter how quietly they had been said: "Poor devil!" He wanted to look around, but he felt that that would seem absurd.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Später Ruhm: Novelle

“It seemed to her as if it had been an unpleasant day. She went over the actual events in her mind, and was astonished to find that, after all, the day had been like many hundreds before it and many, many more that were yet to come.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Vienna 1900: Games With Love And Death

“- Acho que devemos estar gratos ao destino por termos saído ilesos dessas aventuras - tanto as reais como as que sonhámos.
- Tens a certeza disso? - interregou ele.
- Sim, como também tenho a certeza que não é a realidade de uma única noite, nem a de toda uma vida que corresponde à verdade intrínseca de um ser humano.
- Nem sonho algum - suspirou ele calmamente - é inteiramente sonho.
Albertine segurou-lhe a cabeça com ambas as mãos e encostou-a ao seio.
- Agora estamos plenamente acordados - observou ela - por muito tempo.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“So these—these were the Wanderings for which the youth of Vienna had yesterday sent him their thanks. Had he deserved them? He would not have been able to say. The whole sorry life that he had led now passed through his mind. Never had he felt so deeply that he was an old man, that not only the hopes, but also the disappointments lay far behind him. A dull hurt rose up in him. He put the book aside, he could not read on. He had the feeling that he had long since forgotten about himself.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Später Ruhm: Novelle

“Unter Antinomien nicht zusammenbrechen, das ist unsere Lebensaufgabe.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Aphorismen und Betrachtungen

“ANATOL: Ach, jak jsme se pak vraceli domů, v kočáře... jako dřív. Položila mi hlavu na prsa. Teď se už nikdy nerozloučíme - řekla...
MAX: Probuď se, příteli, a koukej, abys dospěl ku konci.
ANATOL: "Už se nikdy nerozloučíme"... A dnes ve dvě se žením!
MAX: S jinou.
ANATOL: Nu co; člověk se vždyždycky žení s jinou.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Anatol

“Dieu est-il le rêve de l’humanité? Ce serait trop beau. L’humanité est-elle le rêve de Dieu? Ce serait trop abominable.”
― Arthur Schnitzler

“Vzpomněl si, že Nachtigall definitivně vzdal studium medicíny už po druhé předběžné zkoušce ze zoologie, dokonce zdařile složené, i když se sedmiletým zpožděním.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Snové novely

“Revolutionär ohne Mut, abenteuerlustig ohne die Fähigkeit, Unbequemlichkeiten zu ertragen — Egoist ohne Rücksichtslosigkeit - und endlich ein Künstler ohne Fleiß - ein Selbstkenner ohne Tendenz zur Besserung — ein Verächter des allgemeinen Urteils mit der kleinlichsten Empfindlichkeit”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Arthur Schnitzler, Tagebuch 1879-1931 (Sonderpublikationen Der Osterreichischen Akademie Der Wissen)

“متأكدة بقدر حدسي أن حقيقة ليلة، بل حتى حقيقة حياة إنسان بأكملها، لا تعني في الوقت ذاته حقيقته الداخلية.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“In einer Ecke spielten drei Herren Karten; ein Kellner, der ihnen bisher zugeschaut hatte, half Fridolin beim Ablegen des Pelzes, nahm seine Bestellung entgegen und legte ihm illustrierte Zeitungen und Abendblätter auf den Tisch. Fridolin erschien sich wie geborgen und begann flüchtig die Journale zu durchblättern. Da und dort blieb sein Blick haften. In irgendeiner böhmischen Stadt waren deutschsprachige Straßentafeln heruntergerissen worden. In Konstantinopel gab es eine Konferenz wegen eines Bahnbaus in Kleinasien, an der auch Lord Cranford teilnahm. Die Firma Benies & Weingruber war insolvent geworden. Die Prostituierte Anna Tiger hatte auf ihre Freundin Hermine Drobizky ein Eifersuchtsattentat mit Vitriol verübt. Heute abend fand ein Heringsschmaus in den Sophiensälen statt. Ein junges Mädchen, Marie B., wohnhaft Schönbrunner Hauptstraße 28, hatte sich mit Sublimat vergiftet. – Alle diese Tatsachen, die gleichgültigen und die traurigen, in ihrer trockenen Alltäglichkeit wirkten irgendwie ernüchternd und beruhigend auf Fridolin. Das junge Mädchen, Marie B., tat ihm leid; Sublimat, wie dumm. In dieser Sekunde, während er gemütlich im Café sitzt und Albertine ruhig schläft mit im Nacken verschränkten Armen und der Hofrat schon alles irdische Leid überwunden hat, windet sich Marie B., Schönbrunner Hauptstraße 28, in sinnlosen Schmerzen.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle

“بدا له أنه لو وقف وحده سافِر الوجه بين كل هؤلاء المقنَّعين، فسيكون الأمر أسوأ آلاف المرات من أن يقف فجأة عاريًا بين اللابسين.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“I think that we should be grateful that we have come away from all our adventures unharmed-from the real ones as well as from the dreams."
"Are you sure we have?" he asked.
"Just as sure as I suspect that the reality of one night, even the reality of a whole lifetime, isn't the whole truth."
"And no dream," he said with a soft sigh, "is entirely a dream."
She took his head with both her hands and pressed it warmly to her breast. "But now I suppose we are both awake," she said, "for a long time to come.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas

“هل المرأة الراقدة الآن في قاعة الموتى هي نفسها المرأة التي احتضنها عارية على أنغام "ناختيجال" المتوحشة قبل أربع وعشرين ساعة؟ أم أن المتوفاة هي امرأة أخرى، مجهولة، غريبة تمامًا، لم يقابلها قط؟ كان يعلم: حتى لو كانت المرأة لا تزال حية، المرأة التي يبحث عنها، التي يشتهيها، التي عشقها ربما طوال ساعة، وواصلت حياتها كالمعتاد، ما يرقد خلفه في القاعة ذات السقف المقوس، في ضوء شعلة الغاز المهتزة، لم يكن سوى خيال بين خيالات أخرى، خيال مظلم، بلا معنى ولا غموض، مثلها.. كان ذلك يعني بالنسبة إليه، بل لم يكن من الممكن أن يعني له غير أن مصيرها هو التحلل والفناء، لم يكن من الممكن أن يعني له سوى جثة شاحبة، جثة الليلة الماضية”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“El imperativo urgente del momento era huir, al menos por un tiempo, al sueño y al olvido.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“كل شيء كان يفلت من بين يديه؛ كل شيء أضحى غير حقيقي، حتى بيته، وزوجته، وطفلته، ومهنته.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story

“I feel as if I were forever telling myself a story.”
― Arthur Schnitzler, Lieutenant Gustl