“A lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just badly written about.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“That was how things were back then. Anything that grew took its time growing, and anything that perished took a long time to be forgotten. But everything that had once existed left its traces, and people lived on memories just as they now live on the ability to forget quickly and emphatically.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“There is a fear of voluptuousness that is itself voluptuous, just as a certain fear of death can itself be deadly.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“The good man believed that shortsighted people were also deaf and that their spectacles would become clearer if their ears heard more sharply.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“In those days before the Great War when the events narrated in this book took place, it had not yet become a matter of indifference whether a man lived or died. When one of the living had been extinguished another did not at once take his place in order to obliterate him: there was a gap where he had been, and both close and distant witnesses of his demise fell silent whenever they became aware of his gap. When fire had eaten away a house from the row of others in a street, the burnt-out space remained long empty. Masons worked slowly and cautiously. Close neighbors and casual passers-by alike, when they saw the empty space, remembered the aspect and walls of the vanished house. That was how things were then. Everything that grew took its time in growing and everything that was destroyed took a long time to be forgotten. And everything that had once existed left its traces so that in those days people lived on memories, just as now they live by the capacity to forget quickly and completely.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“That is how a farmer walks across the soil in spring--and later, in summer, the traces of his steps are obscured by the billowing richness of the wheat he once sowed.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“Er war so einfach und untadelig wie seine Konduitenliste, und nur der Zorn, der ihn manchmal ergriff, hätte einen Kenner der Menschen ahnen lassen, daß auch in der Seele des Hauptmanns Trotta die nächtlichen Abgründe dämmerten, in denen die Stürme schlafen und die unbekannten Stimmen namenloser Ahnen.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“Lieutenant Trotta wasn't experienced enough to know that uncouth peasant boys with noble hearts exist in real life and that a lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just badly written.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“This era no longer wants us! This era wants to create independent nations-states! People no longer believe in God. The new religion is nationalism. Nations no longer go to church. They go to national associations. The Monarchy, our Monarchy, is founded on piety, on the faith that God chose the Hapsburgs to rule over so and so many Christian peoples. Our Emperor is a secular brother of the Pope, he is His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty; no other is as apostolic, no other majesty in Europe is as dependent on the Grace of God and on the faith of the peoples in the Grace of God… The Emperor of Austria-Hungary must not be abandoned by God.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“E il mondo non era più il vecchio mondo. Tramontava. Ed era nell'ordine delle cose che un'ora prima del suo tramonto le valli avessero ragione dei monti, i giovani dei vecchi, gli stolti dei savi.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
“Morning birdsong filled the room. For all his high opinion of birds, privileged among God's creatures, still, deep in his heart, the Emperor did not trust them, just as he did not trust artists.”
― Joseph Roth, quote from The Radetzky March
Joseph Roth
Born place: in Brody (Austro-Hungarian Empire), Ukraine
Born date September 2, 1894
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“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8”
― quote from Holy Bible: ESV - English Standard Version
“conclusions are a matter of extrapolated logic based on her best comprehension of the principles the universe has revealed to her.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, quote from Children of Time
“What good is seeking a greater law, when that law can be the whims of a man either stupid or ruthless?”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from Edgedancer
“Behold, the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, what it accomplishes while we are silent, suffer, and pray. Is not the word of Moses true: “You will be silent and the Lord will fight for you”?”
― Eric Metaxas, quote from Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World
“He was an alpha bear. He had balls big enough to handle rejection.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Silver Silence
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The Shepherd of the...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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