I know that human beings were not created equal and cannot be, but I am of the opinion that he who keeps aloof from the so-called rabble in order to preserve the respect he feels is his due is just as reprehensible as the coward who hides from his enemies because he fears to be defeated by them. (查看原文)
I experienced the warmth of a heart and the nobility of a soul in whose presence I seemed to be more than I was because I was everything I possibly could be (查看原文)
The illusion that life is but a dream has occurred to quite a few people, and I feel the same way about it. When I see the limitations imposed on man's powers of action and inquiry and observe how all his efficiency is aimed at nothing but the satisfaction of his needs, which in turn has but one purpose - to prolong his miserable existence - and when I see how all his reassurance on certain aspects of his inquiries is little more than a dreamy resignation, in that he chooses to bedaub the walls of his prison with motley figures and bright prospects - all this, William, makes me mute. (查看原文)
I said something, a casual compliment, but all the while my whole being was absorbed with the sight of her, the sound of her voice, her behavior. (查看原文)
At any rate, it served only to confuse me utterly. I became involved with the wrong couple, the result was chaos, and it took a great deal of Lotte's presence of mind and a lot of pulling and readjusting to get all of us in orderly motion again. (查看原文)
There was the most marvelous sunrise. The trees were wet, the fields refreshed, our chaperones nodding... Lotte asked me if I didn't want to close my eyes, too... I should not stand on ceremony with her. "As long as I can look into your eyes," I said, looking at her steadfastly, "there is no danger of my falling asleep." And we stayed awake, both of us, until we arrived at her gate. The maid opened the door softly, and in reply to her query assured Lotte that her father and the children were well and still asleep. Then I left her, with the request that I might see her again that very day. She agreed, and I rode over to see her. Since then sun, moon, and stars can do what they will - I haven't the faintest notion whether it is day or night. The world around me has vanished. (查看原文)
……and we yearn, ah, we yearn to surrender all of our Self and let ourselves be filled to the brim with a single, tremendous, magnificent emotions, but alas... when we hurry to the spot, when There becomes Here, everything is as it was before and we are left standing in our poverty and constraint, our souls longing for the balm that has eluded us. (查看原文)
Thank God I know how to fit them into my likfe without conceit. Oh, how thankful I am that my heart can feel the simple, harmless joys of the man who brings to the table a head of cabbage he has grown himself, and in a single moment enjoys, not only the vegetable, but all the fine days and fresh mornings since he planted it, the mild evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure he felt while watching it grow. (查看原文)
Now there's nothing that irritates me more than when people torment each other, especially when young people in the prime of their lives, who should be open to all joys, spoil the few good days they have with a dour mien and only find out too late that they have wasted something irretrievable. (查看原文)
The idea that she had looked at his face, at his cheeks, at the buttons on his waistcoat and the collar of his jacket, made every one of these things sacred and invaluable to me. At that point I wouldn't have let anyone have the boy for a thousand talers. (查看原文)
They wanted a fairy tale, and in the end, even Lotte asked me to tell them one. I cut their supper bread for them - now they are almost as willing to receive it from me as from Lotte - and I told them their favorite tale about the princess who is waited on by invisible hands. (查看原文)
She wanted to withdraw her hand, but I clung to it. "We shall meet again!" I cried. "We shall find each other, whatever shape or form we may have. We shall recognize each other. I will go," I added. " I will go willingly, but if I had to say good-bye forever, I could not bear it. Farewell, Lotte; farewell, Albert. We shall meet again." (查看原文)
Patience! Patience! Things will improve. Because I want to assure you, my dear friend, you are right. Since I spend my days among people again and observe what they do and how they live, I find it much easier to live with myself. Since we mortals happen to be so constituted that we compare everything with ourselves and ourselves with everything around us, our happiness and our misery have to lie in the things with which we compare ourselves. Nothing is therefore more dangerous than solitude. Our imagination, forced by its very nature to unfold, nourished by the fantastic visions of poetry, gives shape to a whole order of creatures of which we are the lowliest, and everything around us seems to be more glorious, everyone else more perfect. And all this happens quite naturally. We feel so of... (查看原文)
I slipped away quietly, got into my cabriolet, and drove to M. to see the sun set from the hill there and read Homer's glorious verses about Ulysses and the hospitable swineherd. And all that was well and good. (查看原文)
......and he seems to value my mind and my various talents more than this heart of mine, of which I am so proud, for it is the source of all things - all strength, all bliss, all misery. The things I know, every man can know, but, oh, my heart is mine alone. (查看原文)
