Quotes from The Golem

“It is the narrow, hidden tracks that lead back to our lost homeland, what contains the solution to the last mysteries is not the ugly scar that life's rasp leaves on us, but the fine, almost invisible writing that is engraved on our body.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“I have not let myself be stultified by science, whose highest goal is to furnish a `waiting room', which it would be best to tear down.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“The soul is not a single unity; that is what it is destined to become, and that is what we call 'immortality'. Your soul is still composed of many 'selves', just as a colony of ants is composed of many single ants. You bear within you the spiritual remains of many thousand ancestors, the heads of your line. It is the same with all creatures. How could a chicken that is artificially hatched in an incubator immediately look for the right food, if the experience of millions of years were not stored inside it? The existence of 'instinct' indicates the presence of our ancestors in our bodies and in our souls.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“A brief rustling that broke off short, as if startled at itself, then deadly silence, that agonising, watchful hush, fraught with its own betrayal, that stretched each minute to an excruciating eternity.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Разве не может быть, что невидимый, непостижимый «ветер» бросает и нас то туда, то сюда, определяя наши поступки, тогда как мы, в нашем простодушии, полагаем, что мы действуем по своей свободной воле? Что если жизнь в нас не что иное, как таинственный вихрь?!”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Сильные обходятся без религии - они идут свободно и посох им уже не нужен; тем, для кого все на свете сводится лишь к пище и питью, религия тоже ни к чему - они еще не испытывают в ней нужды. Зачем посох, если ты никуда не идешь, а только топчешься на месте?”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Воистину, труднее смертному вечную улыбку обрящить, нежели, перерыв несметное множество могил, сыскать череп, коий носил на плечах в своей прежней жизни..”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Душа не есть нечто «отдельное», она этим только еще должна стать – и это тогда называется «бессмертием». Ваша душа еще составлена из многочисленных «я» – как муравейник из многих муравьев; вы носите в себе психические остатки многих тысяч предков: глав вашего рода.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Но моя воля разбилась о железный закон: одну мысль я мог прогнать только посредством другой, умирала одна, ее трупом питалась следующая.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Потоки воды стекали с крыш и бежали по лицам домов, как ручьи слез.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Книга говорила мне, как говорит сновидение, только яснее и значительно отчетливее. Она шевелилась в моем сердце, как вопрос. Слова струились из невидимых уст, оживали и подходили ко мне. Они кружились и вихрились вокруг меня как пестро одетые рабыни, уходили потом в землю или расплывались клубами дыма в воздухе, давая место следующим. Каждая надеялась, что я изберу ее и не посмотрю на следующую.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“De pronto comprendí en lo más profundo de su ser a esas criaturas misteriosas que viven a mi alrededor: Se mueven sin voluntad por su existencia, agitadas por una corriente magnética invisible igual que hace un momento flotaba el ramo de novia, arrastrado por el arroyo de mugre.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“¿No es posible que haya un "viento" incomprensible e invisible que nos llevara de un lado para otro, y determinara nuestras acciones, mientras que nosotros, en nuestra simpleza, creemos vivir bajo nuestra propia y libre voluntad?”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“La vida ya es demasiado triste como para amargarla además con odio.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“[...] verzeihen Sie, daß ich so furchtbar gescheit daherrede, aber wenn man an der Universität ist, kommt einem eine Menge vertrottelter Bücher unter die Hände; unwillkürlich verfällt man dann in eine deppenhafte Ausdrucksweise.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Шар может лишь катиться, кубик - кувыркаться, почему бы, следуя тем же, тысячекратно более сложным, законам предопределения, не рассчитать жизненную траекторию такого тысячекратно более сложного объекта, как homo sapiens?”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Omul e ca o țeavă de sticlă prin care alunecă rotonduri colorate: la cei mai mulți, unul într-o viață. Dacă e roșu, se zice că omul e rău. Dacă e galben, omul e bun. Dacă sînt două, unul după altul - unul roșu, celălalt galben, - atunci se zice că e vorba de un caracter instabil. Noi, mușcații de șarpe, străbatem într-o singură viață, drumul pe care altminteri o specie întreagă de oameni îl urcă de-a lungul vârstei unei lumi: bilele colorate gonesc în șir de-a lungul țevii de sticlă, și când s-au sfârșit - sîntem profeți, oglinzi ale dumnezeirii.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“...un om intrat sub stăpânirea propriului său suflet; și-l ducea prin locurile sălbatece ale vieții, în abisuri și-n ascuțișul sâncilor, sus, spre culmile ninse ale unei lumi neumblate.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Nu, nu mă mai las batjocorit, nu mai vreau să fiu jucăria unei soarte incerte, fără nici o țintă, care mă înalță și mă împinge iară în mocirlă, nu cumva să nu înțeleg deșertăciunea a tot ce-i pământesc. Ca și cum n-o știam demult - orice copil o știe, până și câinele de pe stradă!”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“- С тех пор как Луна, бледная странница, кружит по небосклону, - продолжал иудей, - пребываю я в мире сем. Мне суждено было узреть первых людишек - подобные обезьянам, они приходили из древа и уходили во древо, из колыбели во гроб. И по сей день люди как обезьяны, и в руках у них по-прежнему топор. потухший взор их обращен вниз, в бесконечность, коя сокрыта в малом, - там, в непроглядной бездне, тщатся они дно обрящить. Итак, познали они, что в чреве самого ничтожного червя обитают миллионы крошечных существ, а в тех в свой черед - миллиарды еще более крошечных, однако всё еще невдомек пытливым исследователям, что эдак им конца во веки веком не сыскать. И хотя взору моему отверсты обе бездны, и верхняя и нижняя, да и слезы свои я давным-давно повыплакал, но, все едино, смеяться так и не научился...”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Призраки, гигантские, бесформенные, свидетельствующие о себе разве что смертью, голодом и разрухой - невидимые участники тайных заседаний, алчной сворой теснящиеся вокруг крытых зеленым сукном столов, за которыми циничные честолюбивые старцы решают судьбы мира, они собрали свой страшный многомиллионный урожай и до поры до времени впали в спячку; но сейчас проснулся самый страшный из всех фантомов - уже давно тлетворный дух загнивающей культуры щекотал его ноздри, - и поднял из бездны личину Медузы, и рассмеялся в лицо одураченному человечеству, ибо то, что люди принимали за прогресс, ради чего мучились, страдали и приносили неисчислимые жертвы, оказалось огромным пыточным колесом, которое эти слепцы вращали в безумной надежде снискать для грядущих поколений свободу и которое они теперь, несмотря на все свои "знания", на веки вечные обречены приводить в движение.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Stavo pensando", disse Prokop come se volesse farsi perdonare il suo silenzio, "com'è strano quando il vento gioca con gli oggetti inanimati. E' quasi miracoloso il modo in cui cose che giacciono in giro senza un briciolo di vita improvvisamente cominciano a svolazzare. Non ve ne siete accorti? Una volta stavo in una piazza deserta e guardavo un mucchio di cartacce che si rincorrevano l'un l'altra. Non sentivo il vento perché stavo in un angolo riparato, ma eccole là, ammassate insieme in una vera e propria danza della morte. Un attimo dopo sembrava che avessero stipulato un armistizio ma, tutto a un tratto, uno sbuffo irresistibile della memoria sembrava soffiare su di loro, e ricominciavano, ognuna correndo dietro alla sua vicina finché scomparvero dietro l'angolo. Rimase solo un giornale intero; stava impotente sul selciato, e sbatteva astiosamente di qua e di là: sembrava un pesce fuor d'acqua che boccheggiasse. Non potei fare a meno di pensare che noi, in fin dei conti, siamo proprio come quei pezzetti di carta svolazzanti, nient'altro. Siamo trascinati di qua e di là da un "vento" invisibile e incomprensibile, che ci obbliga a comportarci in un certo modo, per quanto -da vanitosi- ci vantiamo della nostra forza di volontà.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Pensate al cristallo che, massa amorfa, assume una forma regolare ubbidendo alle proprie immutabili leggi pur senza averne coscienza. Non potrebbe succedere lo stesso nel mondo dello spirito?”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Il mondo intero era ridotto a polvere e cenere; e la mia anima era nelle stesse condizioni.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Non per molto! Non sarei stato più lo zimbello di un goffo Fato, privo di scopo, che non sapeva nemmeno fare il suo disgustoso lavoro... che mi innalzava in cielo solo per precipitarmi nel sudicio stagno puzzolente dello scoraggiamento, e intanto suonava la sua stupida canzone che conoscevo benissimo... che tutti i bambini conoscevano... tutti i cani randagi perfino... che nulla dura sulla terra... che tutto passa... tutto...”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Avevo tuttavia ottenuto almeno un risultato fermo: la certezza che la successione degli avvenimenti della vita di ognuno non è che una strada senza uscita, per quanto ampia e facilmente percorribile possa sembrare, e che la soluzione del nostro più intimo mistero si può trovare nelle linee appena visibili incise nel nostro essere, piuttosto che nelle rivoltanti e ovvie cicatrici lasciate dalla raspa della vita esteriore.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Buchstaben zu empfinden, sie nicht nur mit den Augen in Büchern zu lesen, - einen Dolmetsch in mir selbst aufzustellen, der mir übersetzt, was die Instinkte ohne Worte raunen, darin muß der Schlüssel liegen, sich mit dem eigenen Innern durch klare Sprache zu verständigen, begriff ich.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“La mia immagine stava sulla soglia. Il mio doppio. In un mantello bianco. Una corona sulla testa. Per un breve istante. Quindi guizzarono le fiamme attraverso il legno della porta, e una calda nuvola di denso fumo soffocante invase la stanza”.”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

“Nu, n-am să mor, n-am voie să mor! De dragul ei! Chiar dacă ar trebui să scapăr scântei din oase ca să mă încălzesc!”
― Gustav Meyrink, quote from The Golem

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Popular quotes

“The now-famous yearly Candlebrow Conferences, like the institution itself, were subsidized out of the vast fortune of Mr. Gideon Candlebrow of Grossdale, Illinois, who had made his bundle back during the great Lard Scandal of the '80s, in which, before Congress put an end to the practice, countless adulterated tons of that comestible were exported to Great Britain, compromising further an already debased national cuisine, giving rise throughout the island, for example, to a Christmas-pudding controversy over which to this day families remain divided, often violently so. In the consequent scramble to develop more legal sources of profit, one of Mr. Candlebrow's laboratory hands happened to invent "Smegmo," an artificial substitute for everything in the edible-fat category, including margarine, which many felt wasn't that real to begin with. An eminent Rabbi of world hog capital Cincinnati, Ohio, was moved to declare the product kosher, adding that "the Hebrew people have been waiting four thousand years for this. Smegmo is the Messiah of kitchen fats." [...]

Miles, locating the patriotically colored Smegmo crock among the salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, steak sauce, sugar and molasses, opened and sniffed quizzically at the contents. "Say, what is this stuff?"

"Goes with everything!" advised a student at a nearby table. "Stir it in your soup, spread it on your bread, mash it into your turnips! My doormates comb their hair with it! There's a million uses for Smegmo!”
― Thomas Pynchon, quote from Against the Day

“Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.”
― Denis Johnson, quote from Jesus' Son

“feathers, and a shield and a lance and a sword. His armor and his weapons were all, I am almost sure, of quite different periods. The shield was thirteenth century, while the sword was of the pattern used in the Peninsular War. The cuirass was of the time of Charles I., and the helmet dated from the Second Crusade. The arms on the shield were very grand—three red running lions on a blue ground. The tents were of the latest brand approved of by our modern War Office, and the whole appearance of camp, army, and leader might have been a shock to some. But Robert was dumb with admiration, and it all seemed to him perfectly correct, because he knew no more of heraldry or archæology than the gifted artists who usually drew the pictures for the historical romances. The scene was indeed "exactly like a picture." He admired”
― E. Nesbit, quote from Five Children and It

“Maybe sheetrocking wasn't one of Sully's favorite jobs, but like most physical labor, there was a rhythm to it that you could find if you cared to look, and once you found this rhythm it'd get you through a morning. Rhythm was what Sully had counted on over the long years - that and the wisdom to understand that no job, no matter how thankless or stupid or backbreaking, could not be gotten through. The clock moved if you let it.”
― Richard Russo, quote from Nobody's Fool

“Officer Gurney ran a strip of yellow tape around the back area of the café, roping it off so no one could disturb the site. Then he scanned the crowd. His eyes lit on a comfortably plump woman wearing a red down jacket that made her look even plumper. She had a short brownish-blond ponytail that stuck out through a hole in her red baseball hat. “Brenda,” said Officer Gurney. “What do you think?” Grover was in danger of being late for school by this time. He’d already been late twice this month. If he was late again, he might get a note sent home to his parents. But he had to risk it. This was too interesting to miss. The woman stepped forward. Grover knew her, of course; everyone did. Mrs. Brenda Beeson was the one who had figured out the Prophet’s mumbled words and explained what they meant. She and her committee—the Reverend Loomis, Mayor Orville Milton, Police Chief Ralph Gurney, and a few others—were the most important people in the town. Officer Gurney raised the yellow tape so Mrs. Beeson could duck under it. She stood before the window a long time, her back to the crowd, while everyone waited to see what she would say. Clouds sailed slowly across the sun, turning everything dark and light and dark again. To Grover, it seemed like ages they all stood there, holding their breath. He resigned himself to being late for school and started thinking up creative excuses. The front door of his house had stuck and he couldn’t get it open? His father needed him to help fish drowned rats out of flooded basements? His knee had popped out of joint and stayed out for half an hour? Finally Mrs. Beeson turned to face them. “Well, it just goes to show,” she said. “We never used to have people breaking windows and stealing things. For all our hard work, we’ve still got bad eggs among us.” She gave an exasperated sigh, and her breath made a puff of fog in the chilly air. “If this is someone’s idea of fun, that person should be very, very ashamed of himself. This is no time for wild, stupid behavior.” “It’s probably kids,” said a man standing near Grover. Why did people always blame kids for things like this? As far as Grover could tell, grown-ups caused a lot more trouble in the world than kids. “On the other hand,” said Mrs. Beeson, “it could be a threat, or a warning. We’ve heard the reports about someone wandering around in the hills.” She glanced back at the bloody rag hanging in the window. “It might even be a message of some sort. It looks to me like that stain could be a letter, maybe an S, or an R.” Grover squinted at the stain on the cloth. To him it looked more like an A, or maybe even just a random blotch. “It might be a B,” said someone standing near him. “Or an H,” said someone else. Mrs. Beeson nodded. “Could be,” she said. “The S could stand for sin. Or if it’s an R it could stand for ruin. If you’ll let me have that piece of cloth, Ralph, I’ll show it to Althea and see if she has anything to say about it.” Just then Wayne Hollister happened to pass by, saw the crowd, and chimed in about what he’d seen in the night. His story frightened people even more than the blood and the broken glass. All around him, Grover heard them murmuring: Someone’s out there. He’s given us a warning. What does he mean to do? He’s trying to scare us. One woman began to cry. Hoyt McCoy, as usual, said that Brenda Beeson should not pronounce upon things until she was in full possession of the facts, which she was not, and that to him the”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood

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