Unreadability of this world. All doubles. The strong clocks back the fissure-hour, hoarsely. You, wedged into your deepest, climb out of yourself for ever. — Paul Celan, “Unreadability,” Paul Celan: Selections. (University of California Press, March 14th 2005)
If we were on the right road, having to leave it would mean endless despair. But we are on a road that only leads to a second one and then to a third one and so forth. And the real highway will not be sighted for a long, long time, perhaps never. So we drift… Continue reading Franz Kafka
I would describe myself like a landscape I’ve studied at length, in detail; like a word I am coming to understand; like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime; like my mother’s face; like a ship that’s carried me when the waters raged. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Book of Monastic Life,” Rilke’s book… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
In a dream–in the last dream of the morning, I stood in the foothills today–beyond the world, held scales, and weighed the world. ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. (Penguin Books; Later Printing edition March 30, 1978) Originally published 1883.
I am not well; I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason. — Franz Kafka, Letters To Felice. ( Schocken; Pbk ed. edition December 6, 2016) Originally published 1967.
I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther. (Modern Library; Reprint edition, February 8, 2005) Originally published… Continue reading Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it. — Franz Kafka, Dearest Father: Stories And Other Writings. Translation by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins. Schocken Books; 1st edition (1954)
