“You hate America, don't you?'
That would be as silly as loving it,' I said. 'It's impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn't interest me. It's no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can't think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can't believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.”
― Mother Night
That would be as silly as loving it,' I said. 'It's impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn't interest me. It's no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can't think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can't believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.”
― Mother Night
“Bei der Beschäftigung mit Geschichte ist Langsamkeit ein Vorzug. Der Forscher verzögert die rasenden Vorgänge von damals, bis sein Verstand sie fassen kann. Dann aber weist er dem schnellsten König nach, wie er im Gefecht hätte handeln sollen.”
― Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit
― Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit
“It is to be regretted that no mental method of daguerreotype or photography has yet been discovered by which the characters of men can be reduced to writing and put into grammatical language with an unerring precision of truthful description. How often does the novelist feel, ay, and the historian also and the biographer, that he has conceived within his mind and accurately depicted on the tablet of his brain the full character and personage of man, and that nevertheless, when he flies to pen and ink to perpetuate the portrait, his words forsake, elude, disappoint, and play the deuce with him, till at the end of a dozen pages the man described has no more resemblance to the man conceived than the signboard at the coner of the street has to the Duke of Cambridge?”
― Barchester Towers
― Barchester Towers
“Über die Altgläubigen ist nicht viel zu sagen. Die Majorität aller Menschen gehört zu ihnen. Diese Vielen nennen die Gewohnheit ihre Amme, die sie von der Wiege bis zum Grabe sicher nährt.”
― Die Antifeministen: Ein Buch der Verteidigung
― Die Antifeministen: Ein Buch der Verteidigung
“Den Haag, das zu jener Zeit um die vierzigtausend Einwohner zählte, nennt Diderot das schönste Dorf auf der Erde und den Weg von der Stadt an den Strand von Scheveningen hinaus eine Promenade, die nirgendwo sonst ihresgleichen habe. Es war nicht leicht, diese Ansichten nachzuvollziehen, als ich selber die Parkstraat entlang in Richtung Scheveningen wanderte. Hier und da stand eine schöne Villa in einem Garten, aber sonst gab es kaum etwas, das mich aufatmen ließ. Wahrscheinlich war ich, wie schon so oft in fremden Städten, auf den falschen Wegen gegangen.”
― The Rings of Saturn
― The Rings of Saturn
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