Vera > Vera's Quotes

“No one has the right to enter literature without fresh new ideas. We’ve got too many dexterous drudges as it is.”
― Jan Neruda, Prague Tales

“Niemand würde glauben, wie schön Prag in der Nacht ist, im Glanz des Mondes. Die Menschen schlummern, die Steine sind lebendig geworden, auch in die Standbilder auf der Karlsbrücke kommt Leben. Der Hradčin, schon am Tage majestätisch erhaben, ist bei Nacht noch erhabener. Umflort von der Farbe der Finsternis, erhebt er sich hoch in den endlosen Himmel, und sein Turm, steil aufragend, reicht bis an die funkelnden Sterne. Die Moldau rauscht hymnisch, über ihrem Tal steht der Mond, der sich so manchmal von dem herrlichen Anblick nicht trennen kann; er schaut und schaut, bis ihn die eifersüchtige Sonne verscheucht.”
― Jan Neruda

“I’ve supped on potatoes and groats and am waiting to be sick. How about you?

I supped like the Lord in Heaven.’

and what does the Lord in Heaven have for supper?’

Nothing.”
― Jan Neruda, Prague Tales

“И любовта грабни ми -
туй благо най-голямо;
народът ми в замяна
да е свободен само!”
― Jan Neruda

“The two men were greedily hunched over the table, like two wolves disputing a carcass, but their muttered speech in the echoing hall resembled more the grunting of pigs. One was less than a wolf: he was a public prosecutor. The other was more than a pig, he was a chief commissioner of police.”
― Jan Neruda, Prague Tales

“Men are jealous of every woman, even when they don’t have the slightest interest in her themselves.”
― Jan Neruda, Prague Tales

“Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it's not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you've been to. I'm not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I don't have to be like anyone else. I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me.”
― Hugo Hamilton, The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood