29 quotes
At all times, in all places, and in every heart, human fear is the same: it is the fear of destruction, the fear of death.
The Forest Passage (1951)
The teaching of the forest is as ancient as human history, and even older.
The Forest Passage (1951)
The numbers of those wanting to abandon ship is growing, among them sharp minds and sound spirits.
The Forest Passage (1951)
Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!
On Pain (1934)
Better a short life, full of deeds and glory, than a long life without substance.
On Pain (1934)
The great solitude of the individual is a hallmark of our times.
The Forest Passage (1951)
Politics is a continuation of war by different means.
Our Politicians (1925)
In war you learn your lessons, and they stay learned, but the tuition fees are high.
Storm of Steel (1920)
The individual no longer stands in society like a tree in the forest; instead, he resembles a passenger on a fast-moving vessel, which could be called Titanic, or also Leviathan.
The Forest Passage (1951)
We do not escape our boundaries or our innermost being. We do not change. It is true we may be transformed, but we always walk within our boundaries, within the marked-off circle.
The Glass Bees (1957)
Myth is not prehistory; it is timeless reality, which repeats itself in history. We may consider our own century’s rediscovery of meaning in myth as a favorable sign.
The Forest Passage (1951)
A great physicist is always a metaphysicist as well; he has a higher concept of his knowledge and his task.
The Glass Bees (1957)
I had always been man enough to ruin myself without help.
The Glass Bees (1957)
This was the home of the great god Pain, and for the first time I looked through a devilish chink into the depths of his realm. And fresh shells came down all the time.
Storm of Steel (1920)
Liberalism is to freedom as anarchism is to anarchy.
Eumeswil (1977)
Familiarizing those in danger with the idea that resistance is even possible is already enormously important—once that has been understood, even a tiny minority can bring down the mighty but clumsy colossus.
The Forest Passage (1951)
In war you learn thoroughly, but the tuition fees are high.
Storm of Steel (1920)
This objection is not directed at the poet, who, in his works and in his life, manifests the vast superiority of the world of the muses over the technical world. He helps people find the way back to themselves—the poet is a forest rebel.
The Forest Passage (1951)
Where the automatism increases to the point of approaching perfection—such as in America—the panic is even further intensified. There it finds its best feeding grounds; and it is propagated through networks that operate at the speed of light.
The Forest Passage (1951)
The special trait making me an anarch is that I live in a world which I ‘ultimately’ do not take seriously. This increases my freedom; I serve as a temporary volunteer.
Eumeswil (1977)