Quotes from Ludwig Tieck

How may I hate that which I love with such intensity of passion? How should I abhor that for which my every drop of blood is boiling?

With horror he perceived that, by uniting himself as he had with the dead, he had cut himself off from the living. Stripped of all earthly hope, bereft of every consolation, he was rendered as poor as mortal can possibly be on this side of the grave.

Waldeinsamkeit, Die mich erfreut, So morgen wie heut In ewger Zeit, O wie mich freut Waldeinsamkeit. Waldeinsamkeit Wie liegst du weit! O Dir gereut Einst mit der Zeit. Ach einzige Freud Waldeinsamkeit! Waldeinsamkeit Mich wieder freut, Mir geschieht kein Leid, Hier wohnt kein Neid Von neuem mich freut Waldeinsamkeit.

Walter was a powerful lord in Burgundy, who, in his earliest youth, had been smitten with the charms of the fair Brunhilda, a beauty far surpassing in loveliness all her rivals; for her tresses, dark as the raven face of night, streaming over her shoulders, set off to the utmost advantage the beaming lustre of her slender form, and the rich dye of a cheek whose tint was deep and brilliant as that of the western heaven:

Wherefore, fond wretch, dost thou grieve thus, for what is now a hideous mass of mortality — mere bones, and nerves, and veins? Nations have fallen unlamented; even worlds themselves, long ere this globe of ours was created, have mouldered into nothing; nor hath any one wept over them; why then should'st thou indulge this vain affliction for a child of the dust — a being as frail as thyself, and like thee the creature but of a moment?

Once more do I warn thee,' answered the old man with undisturbed composure, "Wake not the dead" — let her rest.' 'Aye, but not in the cold grave: she shall rather rest on this bosom which burns with eagerness to clasp her.

They either beheld their children sink one after the other into the grave, or their youthful forms, withered by the unholy, vampire embrace of Brunhilda, assume the decrepitude of sudden age.

Ferdinand took up some books: he found them to contain strange unintelligible characters, circles and lines, with many curious plates; and from the little he could read, they seemed to be works on alchemy; he was aware already that the old man had the reputation of a gold-maker. A lute was lying on the table, singularly overlaid with mother-of-pearl, and coloured wood; and representing birds and flowers in very splendid forms.

Bravely spoken, mother! cried her son: these sentiments are worthy of a governor. And if it chance that any of the maids should break her neck; the cook get tipsy, or set the chimney on fire; the butler, for joy, let all the malmsey run upon the floor, or down his throat, yon shall not hear a word of such small tricks. If, indeed, an earthquake were to overset the house! that, my dear mother, could not be kept secret.