“For if one is partly insane, one is also, juridically, partly sane, and if one is partly sane one is at least partly responsible for one's actions, and if one is partly responsible one is wholly responsible; for responsibility is, as they say, that state in which the individual has the power to devote himself to a specific purpose of his own free will, independently of any compelling necessity, and one cannot simultaneously possess and lack such self-determination.”
― The Man Without Qualities: Volume I
― The Man Without Qualities: Volume I
“In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.”
― The Seagull
― The Seagull
“The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.”
―
―
“From each art practiced in its time I derive a knowledge which compensates me in part for pleasures lost. I have supposed, and in my better moments think so still, that it would be possible in this manner to participate in the existence of everyone; such sympathy would be one of the least revocable kinds of immortality.”
― Memoirs of Hadrian
― Memoirs of Hadrian
“I am coming to see that the sensation of the worst nightmares, a sensation that can be felt asleep or awake, is identical to those worst dreams' form itself: the sudden intra-dream realization that the nightmares' very essence and center has been with you all along, even awake: it's just been ... overlooked; and then that horrific interval between realizing what you've overlooked and turning your head to look back at what's been right there all along, the whole time...”
― Infinite Jest
― Infinite Jest
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