Quotes from Address Unknown

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor ·  64 pages

Rating: (4.3K votes)


“But there is another realm where we can always find something true, the fireside of a friend, where we shed our little conceits and find warmth and understanding, where small selfishnesses are impossible and where wine and books and talk give a different meaning to existence.
There we have made something that no falseness can touch. We are at home.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“We are vain and we are dishonest because it is necessary to triumph over other vain and dishonest persons.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“از بین رفتن ناامیدی خیلی وقتها منجر می شود به قدم گذاشتن در راههای جنون آمیز.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“...اینجور اتفاق ها مثل طوفان است. در یک لحظه خیس آب می شوی و از پا میفتی و هیچ کاری هم از دستت برنمی آید. اما لحظه ای بعد آفتاب درمی آید و بااینکه هیچ چیز را فراموش نکرده ای تنها چیزی که باقی می ماند محبت است نه غم و غصه”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“In 1939, Simon & Schuster published ADDRESS UNKNOWN as a book and sold fifty thousand copies, a huge number in those years. Hamish Hamilton followed suit in England with a British edition, and foreign translations were begun. But 1939 was also the year of Blitzkrieg; within months most of Europe was under the domination of Adolph Hitler, the Dutch translation disappeared, and the only other European appearance of ADDRESS UNKNOWN was on the Reichskommisars list of banned books. So the story remained unknown on the continent for the next sixty years, despite its great impact and success in the U.S. and England. Author”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown



“Does the surgeon spare the cancer because he must cut to remove it? We are cruel. Of course we are cruel.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“A short time before the war, some cultivated, intellectual, warm-hearted German friends of mine returned to Germany after living in the United States. In a very short time they turned into sworn Nazis. They refused to listen to the slightest criticism about Hitler. During a return visit to California, they met an old dear friend of theirs on the street, who had been very close to them and who was a Jew. They did not speak to him. They turned their backs on him when he held his hands out to embrace them. How can such a thing happen, I wondered. What changed their hearts so? What steps brought them to such cruelty? These”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“But also it is not only expedient, there is something more, a feeling that we of Germany have found our destiny and that the future sweeps toward us in an overwhelming wave. We too must move. We must go with it. Even now there are being wrongs done. The storm troopers are having their moment of victory, and there are bloody heads”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“impossible for me to be in correspondence with a Jew even if it were not that I have an official position to maintain. If a communication becomes necessary you must enclose it with the bank draft and not write to me at my house again. As for the stern measures that so distress you, I myself did not like them at first, but I have come to see their painful necessity. The Jewish race is a sore spot to any nation that harbors it. I have never hated the individual Jew -- yourself I have always cherished as a friend, but you will know that I speak in all honesty when I say I have loved you, not because of your race but in spite of it. The”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“Alas, Max, this will pain you, I know, but you must realize the truth. There are movements far bigger than the men who make them up. As for me, I am a part of the movement. Heinrich is an officer in the boys’ corps, which is headed by Baron Von Freische, whose rank is now shedding a luster upon our house, for he comes often to visit with Heinrich and Elsa, whom he much admires.”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown



“These are the only important men, the doers. And here in Germany a doer has risen. A vital man is changing things. The whole tide of a people’s life changes in a minute because the man of action has come. And I join him. I am not just swept along by a current. The useless life that was all talk and no accomplishment I drop. I put my back and shoulders behind the great new movement. I am a man because I act. Before that I am just a voice. I do not question the ends of our action. It is not necessary. I know it is good because it is so vital. Men are not drawn into bad things with so much joy and eagerness. You say”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“Martin: I write again because I must. A black foreboding has taken possession of me. I wrote Griselle as soon as I knew she was in Berlin and she answered briefly. Rehearsals were going brilliantly; the play would open shortly. My second letter was more encouragement than warning, and it has been returned to me, the envelope unopened, marked only addressee unknown, (Adressant Unbekannt). What a darkness those words carry! How can she be unknown? It is surely a message that she has come to harm. They know what has happened to her, those stamped letters say,”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


“You will destroy us all, Griselle,” I tell her. “You must run back further in the park.” She looks at me and smiles (she was always a brave girl) and makes her own choice. “I would not bring you harm, Martin,” she says, and she runs down the steps and out toward the trees. But she must be tired. She does not run very fast and the storm troopers have caught sight of her. I am helpless. I go in the house and in a few minutes she stops screaming, and in the morning I have the body sent down to the village for burial. She was a fool to come to Germany. Poor little Griselle. I grieve with you, but as you see, I was helpless to aid her. I must now demand you do not write again. Every word that comes to the house is now censored, and I cannot tell how soon they may start to open the mail to the bank. And I will no longer have any dealings with Jews, except for the receipt of money. It is not so good for me that a Jewess came here for refuge, and no further association can be tolerated. A”
― Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, quote from Address Unknown


About the author

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
Born place: in Portland, OR, The United States
Born date January 1, 1903
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