41 quotes
At night I sit in my chamber and read the Bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
I believe in God. When everything collapses, we grip the last hold, we look from the secure haven how the godless society of the old, holy Europe falls apart. May the game begin.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend Richard Flisges, who died as a brave soldier of work in a mine at Schliersee on the 19th of July 1923.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
We have had much to bear already. And still more will we have to bear. Let us thank God for being young.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
The life is worth living. It's not true, what the tired and reactionary say. We're not on this earth to suffer and die. We're here to fulfill a mission.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
Devotion, fervor, longing! Those are my pillars. We have to be the bridge to the future.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
The Jew is contrary to our being. … He desecrated our people, spat on our ideals, paralyzed the strength of the nation, made our customs rotten, and polluted the morale.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
Hereafter we all have to be redeemed. The world is pulling with a thousand strings. We sin because of indifference and negligence and heap new guilt on the old original one. Our life is a chain of sin and expiation ruled by an incomprehensible providence.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
Now I have found the word: we modern Germans are something like Christ-socialists. Christ is the genius of love, and as such the diametrical opposite of Judaism, which is the incarnation of hate.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense a war between Christ and Marx.
Christ: the principle of love.
Marx: the principle of hate.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
When I sit near the ocean in the morning and write my verses and breathe the salty wind which is coming from the water, I rejoice in God and I am blissful, as I was as a child.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
1923. You challenged your fate. To surmount or to die! It was not yet time. Therefore you became a victim.
Your answer was: Death!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
Great hour! Spent together, rejoicing and dreaming. Days and years are gathering. We are a still island in the ocean of the world. Beginning and end! Border between life and eternity! Euphoria, fulfillment, existence!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
1920. Both of us were about to capitulate facing spiritual breakdown. Then we helped each other to stand tall and did not falter.
My answer was: Resistance!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
1927. I stood in front of your grave; in radiating sunshine there was a still, green mound. And it was preaching about mortality.
My answer was: resurrection.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
I feel how inside of me word follows word and thought follows thought, growing to the last act of creation. Holy hour of bringing forth, you are pain and pleasure, and a longing for form, image and essence. I am only the instrument that God uses to sing his song. I am only the vessel that nature smilingly fills with new wine.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
My God is a God of strength. HE does not like the smell of frankincense and the dishonoring crawl of the crowd. I stand before HIM proudly, with the head held high, as HE created me, and I profess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
I put down the oars and float endlessly as if to the eternal shore. Blue light of the moon shines on my sail. My boat is gliding to a secure haven. Only silent waves break against it. Deepest silence surrounds me and my soul builds a golden bridge to a star.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
Dostoyevsky is ahead of his time - a few daring steps. You follow him, dizzying, fearful, incredulous; but you follow. He won't let loose, you have to follow. … You simply have to call him unique. He comes from nowhere and belongs nowhere. And yet he is always a Russian.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
A child laughs when it feels joy and cries when it feels pain. Both things, laughing and crying, it does with its whole heart. We have all become so tall and so clever. We know so much and we have read so much. But one thing we have forgot: to laugh and cry like the children do.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)