Quotes from Heinrich Boll

If the dead could speak there would be no more war. Heinrich Böll; "The Stories of Heinrich Böll"

The gorse was in bloom, the fuchsia hedges were already budding; wild green hills, mounds of peat; yes, Ireland is green, very green, but its green is not only the green of meadows, it is the green of moss - certainly here, beyond Roscommon, toward County Mayo - and Moss is the plant of resignation, of forsakenenness. The country is forsaken, it is being slowly but steadily depopulated...

Wohin ich dich auch führen werde, es wird das Leben sein.

The characters and action in this story are purely fictitious. Should the description of certain journalistic practices result in a resemblance to the practices of Bild-Zeitung, such resemblance is neither intentional, nor fortuitous, but unavoidable.

Có nh?ng th? trên ??i không th? mua và không cách nào giành ???c, nh?ng th? ch? có th? ???c t?ng, và má»™t trong nh?ng th? Ä'ó là tình yêu...

Ciò di cui un clown ha bisogno è tregua, la finzione di ciò che gli altri chiamano tempo libero. Ma questi altri non capiscono che la finzione del tempo libero per un clown consiste appunto nel dimenticare il suo lavoro, e non lo capiscono proprio perché loro si occupano della cosiddetta arte proprio durante il loro tempo libero.

Los católicos me ponen nervioso -dije-, porque juegan sucio. -¿Y los protestantes? -preguntó riendo. -Me irritan con su manoseo de las conciencias. -¿Y los ateos? -seguía riéndose. -Me aburren, porque siempre hablan de Dios. -¿Y qué es usted, pues? -Soy un payaso -dije-, de momento, superior a mi fama.

Olvidé mencionar que soy sensible no sólo a la melancolía y a la jaqueca, sino que poseo, además, otro don casi místico: puedo percibir olores por teléfono (Bóll, Heinrich. Opiniones de un payaso, trad. Lucas Casas. México: Seix Barral, 2005 p. 14).

Nicht einmal der Teufel kann so scharfe Augen haben wie Nachbarn.

Unconditionally! Love is always unconditional, you see. Haven't you…haven't you ever loved a woman?

Hell hates nothing quite so much as itself.

Now the Irish have a strange custom: whenever the name of County Mayo is spoken (whether in praise, blame, or non-committally, as soon as the world Mayo is spoken, the Irish add: 'God help us!" It sounds like the response in a litany: 'Lord, have mercy upon us!

Atheisten langweilen mich, weil sie immer nur von Gott sprechen.

There are some strange unrecognized forms of prostitution with which prostitution itself is an honest trade: at least you get something for your money.

Non capivano che il segreto dell'orrore sta nel particolare. È molto facile, un gioco da bambini, pentirsi di gravi colpe: errori politici, adulterio, assassinio, antisemitismo. Ma chi perdona il particolare? Chi comprende i dettagli?

Alguien que lo mire desde fuera -todo el mundo es mirado desde fuera por los demás- siente siempre una cosa mejor o peor que aquel que conoce el asunto, trátese de felicidad o de desgracia, penas de amor o "decadencia artística".

He was not a realist, and I wasn't either, and we both knew that the others in all their triteness were realists, stupid as puppets which touch their collars a thousand times without ever discovering the string they are dangling on.

I don't trust Catholics," I said, "because they take advantage of you." "And Protestants?" he asked with a laugh. "I loathe the way they fumble around with their consciences." "And atheists?" He was still laughing. "They bore me because all they ever talk about is God." "Then what are you?" "I am a clown," I said...

God is with those who are unhappy. Unhappiness is life, pain is life.

Exist? un cuvânt minunat:nimic.Nu te gândi la nimic.GândeÈ™te-te doar la clovnul care plânge în cad?,È™i c?ruia papucii îi È™iroiesc a cafea.

He always spoke of himself to me "as an unskilled laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, with regard to outlook as well as wages.

I would have liked to cry: the make-up stopped me, it looked just right, with the cracks, with the places where it was beginning to flake off, tears would have ruined all that. I could cry later, if I still felt like it.

What I do best are the absurdities of daily life: I observe, add up these observations, increase them to the nth degree and draw the square root from them, but with a different factor from the one I increased them by.

Si sa infatti che il vero bisogno, quando lo si avverta nella voce, quando lo si legga sul volto, ha il potere di chiudere le borse.