Quotes from Thomas Bernhard

Sie brauchen in der Welt nach nichts streben , weil Sie werden eh hineingestoßen. Streben ist immer Blödsinn gewesen. Ein Streber ist ja was Grauenhaftes. Die Welt hat ja einen Sog. Der reißt Sie mit, da brauchen Sie nicht streben, Wenn sie streben, werden Sie eben ein Streber.

he kept saying to himself, I will not sell the Francis Bacon, never the Francis Bacon, absolutely not, I will not sell the Francis Bacon, no I won't, not the Francis Bacon.

High-ceilinged empty rooms make a terrible impression on first entering a house.

We're so arrogant that we think we're studying music whereas we're not even capable of living, not even capable of existing, for we don't exist, we get existed...

?ovje?anstvo se, tako se ?ini, napreže samo dotle dok mora o?ekivati zatupljene svjedodžbe s kojima može trijumfirati pred javnoš?u, a kad ima dovoljno takvih zatupljenih svjedodžaba u ruci, onda se zapusti.

We live by the assumption that problems are insoluble at night, soluble by day. That makes philosophizing possible

Talking to young people gets us nowhere, I thought, and anyone who asserts the contrary is a hypocrite, for young people have nothing to say to their elders, to old people—that's the truth. What the young have to say to the old is of absolutely no interest, none whatever, I thought, and to assert the contrary is gross hypocrisy.

We keep silent about what we know, and make good progress, so Roithamer.

then she wanted to know more about the funeral, but I didn't know what else to report, I had already said everything about Wertheimer's funeral, more or less everything. Was it a Jewish funeral, the innkeeper wanted to know. I said, no, no Jewish funeral, he was buried the fastest way possible, I said, everything went so fast I almost missed it. The

Instead of committing suicide, people go to work. All their lives long, as long as their existence allows for this constantly recurring process, so Roithamer.

Tih sam se zadnjih godina prije Rima bio usredoto?io još samo na samoga sebe i pritom najgrublje i najneoprostivije zanemario samoga sebe. Prije svega sam umno, ali i tjelesno oronuo. Postao sam skroz-naskroz oronuo ?ovjek. Skroz-naskroz bolestan, netrpeljiv, nepodnošljivo sumnji?av kao malo tko, skoro sam se ugušio u neprestanom samopromatranju i razglabanju o sebi. Bio sam posve zaboravio da osim moga užasnoga postoji i neki drugi svijet koji nije samo užasan.

It really is a sign of appalling feebleness, I thought, if people fill their apartments with furniture belonging to past ages rather than their own, the harshness and brutality of which they are unable to endure. What they do, it seems to me, is surround themselves with the softness of the dead past that cannot answer back.

Takvi smo mi, rekao sam jednom Gambettiju, pravimo se kako smo za sve apsolutno osposobljeni, ?ak i za ono najviše i najve?e od svega, a zatim nismo u stanju ni uzeti pero u ruku kako bismo stavili na papir barem jednu jedinu rije? te naše najavljivane ne?uvenosti i neponovljivosti. Svi mi patimo od megalomanije, rekao sam Gambettiju, kako ne bismo trebali platiti danak toj svojoj neprekidnoj niskosti.

It is not just Gould's playing but the fact that he stopped playing, turned his back on the world, that fascinated Bernhard. It

No ta pošast svjedodžaba i titula nije, dakako, izum ovog stolje?a, ljudi su uvijek težili za time. Budu?i da su sebe premalo cijenili, jednog su se dana ve? prije više stolje?a iskazivali svjedodžbom i titulom kako bi mogli sami pred sobom postojati.

People or rather each person by himself, can very well be viewed as a novel serialized in a daily newspaper which is printed by nature.

Whereas we're not even capable of living, not even capable of existing, for we don't exist, we get existed.

Suddenly there's an idea and it demands realization, our entire life, our entire existence consists only of such ideas demanding realization, once this process breaks off, our life breaks off, we're dead. We consist of nothing but ideas that surface inside us and that we want to realize, that we must realize, or else we're dead, so Roithamer. Every idea and and every pursuit of an idea inside us is life, so Roithamer, the lack of ideas is death.

When you have lost your closest human being everything seems empty to you, look wherever you like, everything is empty, and you look and look and you see that everything is really empty and, what is more, for ever, Reger said. And you realize that it was not those great minds and not those old masters which kept you alive for decades but that it was this one single person whom you loved more than anyone else.

All schools are bad and the one we attend is always the worst if it doesn't open our eyes. What

Wir sollten immer daran denken, daß es auch noch etwas anderes auf der Welt gibt als die Gewöhnlichkeit.

Durerea mi-a vorbit astfel:Tu nu e?ti om.E?ti o f?ptur? care nu se poate amesteca printre oameni.O vie?uitoare cam trist? ?i ciudat?,e?ti departe de a fi om

Das Fürchterliche muss sein Gelächter haben!

Always wanting the impossible and left with the possible in his minimal existence, the individual always find himself in the lowest depths of dissatisfaction. Nevertheless he always manages to create another life situation for himself, probably because he really loves life, just as it is. We always crave something other than we can have, than we have, other than what is suitable for us, and so we're unhappy.