Quotes from Robert Walser

In the forest you pray involuntarily, and it's also the only place in the world where God is near; God seems to have created forests so we can pray in them as if in sacred temples; one person prays in one way, another in another, but everyone prays. When you lie beneath a fir tree reading a book, you are praying, if praying is the same as being lost in thought. Let God be where He will, in the forest you can sense Him, and you offer up your little bit of belief with silent rapture.

Walk,' was my answer, 'I definitely must, to invigorate myself and to maintain contact with the living world.... Without walking, I would be dead.

Un hiver, je rendis visite, à pied bien entendu, à mon frère qui séjournait alors dans une petite bourgade campagnarde où il était chargé de décorer à fresque une salle de bal. Malgré la saison froide, j'avais choisi une tenue toute mince et légère; m'encombrer peureusement d'étoffes lourdes et épaisses m'eût paru une gêne désagréable, une peine superflue.

there come moments when we know we are no more and no less than waves and snowflakes, or than that which surely feels, now and then, from its so wonderfully charming confinement, the pull of longing: the leaf.

I must find myself a life, a new life, even if all of life consists only of an endless search for life. What is respect compared to this other thing: being happy and having satisfied the heart's pride. Even being unhappy is better than being respected. I am unhappy despite the respect I enjoy; and so in my own eyes I don't deserve this respect; for I consider only happiness worthy of respect. Therefore I must try whether it is possible to be happy without insisting on respect.

To me it's as if the day has been tossed into my lap by a benevolent god who likes to gives things to good-for-nothings.

Every book that has been printed is, after all, a grave for its author, isn't it?

I think that one listens to the murmur of the soul only because of boredom.

Un bel giorno mi toccherà un colpo, uno di quelli che annientano una persona, e allora tutto finirà: finirà questo intrico, questo struggimento, quest'ignoranza, tutto, tutto, gratitudine e ingratitudine, menzogna e miraggi, questo creder di sapere e invece non saper mai niente. Però desidero vivere, non importa come.

For hours and days he sought out ways to make unintelligible the obvious, and to find for things easily understood an inexplicable basis. --Thoughts on Cezanne

A veces ando errante en la niebla y en mil vacilaciones y confusiones, y a menudo me siento abandonado [...] En el fondo, lo único que da orgullo y alegría al espíritu son los esfuerzos superados con bravura y los sufrimientos soportados con paciencia

There are no gods, only one, and he's too sublime to help.

You must not come to the dark conclusion that everything in the world is hard, false, and wicked. The forest likes you. In its company you will find health and good spirits again, and entertain more lofty and beautiful thoughts.

In the sweet light of love I realized, or believed I realized, that perhaps the inward self is the only self which really exists.

I found myself, as I walked into the open, bright, and cheerful street, in a romantically adventurous state of mind, which pleased me profoundly.

Be nice and silent as a boulder amidst breakers.

He is too sensitive to be happy, too haunted by all his irresolute, cautious, mistrusted feelings.

Oh, it is heavenly and good and in simplicity most ancient to walk on foot, provided of course one's shoes or boots are in order.

Je bescheidener meine Wohnung war, um so eleganter wirkte alle Eleganz auf mich, um so künstlerischer erschienen mir Schöpfungen aus dem Gebiet der Kunst, und Freunde und Liebe kamen mir um so freundlicher und liebenswürdiger vor.

Sevgili kardeÅŸim ÅŸu anda bir hiçsin. Fakat genç iken insan zaten bir hiç olmal? çünkü hiç bir ÅŸey erkenden anlam kazanmak kadar y?k?c? olamaz.

At last I have drawn a firm line under the truly astounding great column of figures and am done with pursuing that for which I am not sufficiently intelligent.

Ser joven es equivocarse; la juventud tiene que hablar y actuar irreflexivamente para que haya algún progreso

Forget, forget nothing, don't forget the sweetness, don't forget the severity. If indifference and unkindness take hold of your being, stir your memory and think of all the beautiful, all the burdensome things. Remember there is life and there is death, remember there are moments of bliss and there are graves. Do not be forgetful, but instead remember this.

You must hope and yet hope for nothing. Look up to something, yes, do that, because that is right for you, you're young, terribly young, Jakob, but always admit to yourself that you despise it, the thing that you're looking up to with respect.