Quotes from Andreas Eschbach

The politics of the day didn't interest her. What captivated her were historical events and developments and the millennia that preceded them.

You know, I've studied many biographies from people who got very old, and learned that reaching a great age has a lot to do with the way you sleep. It's not the only reason, but an important one. You can grow to be very old even without being in perfect physical condition if you make sure you get enough sleep.

Clothes make the man

Well, we don't have to work often for this to be much trouble." The Padrone smiled. "Besides, even Dante described the Florentines as greedy, envious, and arrogant people. It is good to keep a bit of distance from this city.

But shame is like a wound that is never exposed and therefore never heals.

It only becomes art if it touches other people.

It seems to me, dear sister, that you still think the important thing is to become like everybody else. In reality, the important thing is to become different from the others, to discover your uniqueness. You're a rebel by birth, but that doesn't mean much. Your own rebellion is still ahead of you.

Nargant often noticed how his own thought processes made endless twists and turns, even to reach totally insignificant decisions, and how much energy he wasted, almost without thinking about it, trying to protect himself on all sides against all eventualities.

Religion war eine Art Regenschirm. Bei schönem Wetter denkt man überhaupt nicht an seinen Regenschirm. Erst wenn es regnet, fällt er einem wider ein.

Your problem, Nagrant,' he declared, 'is that your education was unconnected with the practical reality of life. You grew up believing that rules are more important than all the facts you could ever uncover, and that the slightest disobedience is deadly.

Im Grunde, erkannte sie, stimmt es gar nicht, dass man als Mensch freie Entscheidungen trifft. Wenn es um wichtige Dinge geht, dann wählt man nicht "frei", sondern man wählt die Option, die man für die bessere hält - und das Problem ist, dass man das meistens nicht weiß. Also entscheidet man eigentlich nicht, sondern man rät, und das mit mehr oder weniger Glück.

I was born into this world without knowing what life was all about. Only power promised fulfillment in life, and I have pursued it--long enough to recognize that it's a false promise and that this road leads to nothing. But I tried. Even if we get no answers to our questions, it is the inalienable right of every living being to search for them--by all means, on all paths, and with all strength. What I did was only what I had a right to do.

Nonsense!" his father explained in bad grace. "It's a pointless luxury. To own a yacht is like standing in the rain and ripping apart thousand dollar bills, someone once said.

That life isn't some difficult, complicated thing. You live, you love, and you laugh, and you cry when you need to." "People have done that for eons, and if we keep it up there won't be any more people within a few decades." He shook his head. "No, that's not the answer.

Did the fleet of the Empire have that ability—to destroy an entire solar system?" Yes, Emparak thought. They did it often enough.

You think you've uncovered a great mystery. You have no idea. You haven't even scratched the surface of the history of the Empire.

Doubt was probably a sickness he was born with, and fighting against it was his lot in life...

She felt the breath of history on her cheek.

Nature's in no hurry, then. Why would she be? She has literally all the time in the world.

You know, I ask myself what wealthy people do all day. What do you do when you aren't forced to work but still need the feeling that life must have some kind of meaning?

Now he had to decide--what was the right thing to do? Something that required courage. Something that was frightening, because the unknown was lying in wait on the other side.

Religin war eine Art Regenschirm. Bei schönem Wetter denkt man überhaupt nicht an seinen Regenschirm. Erst wenn es regnet, fällt er einem wider ein.

The definition of gross national product is nonsense, because they don't put such factors as environmental damage and limited resources into the calculation. In the mean time there is another parameter, the gross domestic product, but this is not much better.

For the moment, Mr. Fontanelli, your trillion is nothing but a pile of money that's lying around uselessly. But if you use it to gain economic influence, you may be able to force the world to change!