Quotes from Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Words performed through music can express what language alone had exhausted

Depth must be hidden. Where? On the surface.

To grow mature is to separate more distinctly, to connect more closely.

First, to be able to love, then to learn that body and spirit are one.

First to become capable of love, then to learn that body and spirit are one.

It's all a mystery, so much is mysterious.And we are here to endure it.And in the How, there lies the whole difference—

Depth must be hidden. Where? On the surface.

To grow mature is to separate more distinctly, to connect more closely.

Reality lies in the greatest enchantment you have ever experienced.

To be modern means to like antique furniture - and youthful neurosis.

Words performed through music can express what language alone had exhausted

the activity of modern poets stands under the decree of necessity, as though they were building a pyramid, the monstruos residence of a dead King or an unborn God.

I wanted to show that the fables and mythic tales which the ancients have handed down to us and in which painters and sculptors never cease to find mindless pleasure are the hieroglyphics of a secret, inexhaustible wisdom. I sometimes thought I felt its breath, as though coming from behind a veil.

So las ich falsch in deinem Aug, dem tiefen? Kein heimlich Sehnen sah ich heiß dort funkeln? Es birgt zu deiner Seele keine Pforte Dein feuchter Blick? Die Wünsche, die dort schliefen, Wie stille Rosen in der Flut, der dunkeln, Sind, wie dein Plaudern: seellos... Worte, Worte?

The soul is never wholly assembled, except in delight.

He seeks life where it is to be found: in all that is most delicate, in the folds of things.

Was weiß denn ich vom Menschenleben? Bin freilich scheinbar drin gestanden, Aber ich hab es höchstens verstanden, Konnte mich nie darein verweben.

La escritura es un pequeño equívoco sin importancia, tan pequeño que nos hace casi mudos

Cada prazer da vida se funda no retorno regular das coisas externas. A alternância do dia e da noite, das estações, das flores e dos frutos, e cada coisa que nos vem ao encontro periodicamente, porque nós podemos e devemos apreciá-las, estes são os verdadeiros estímulos da vida terrena. Quanto mais abertos estamos a tais fruições, tanto mais nos sentimos felizes' Goethe

Ein sonderbar Ding ist die Zeit. Wenn man so hineinlebt, ist sie rein gar nichts. Aber dann auf einmal, dann spürt man nichts als sie.

Il n'y a rien de coupable. L'instant n'est pas coupable, c'est seulement de vouloir le retenir qui n'est pas permis. Seul le fait de se cramponner à ce qui ne se laisse pas retenir... (89)

Nothing becomes reality in the political life of a nation that was not present in its literature as spirit.

Apenas naquilo que o homem faz, segue fazendo, naquilo em que persevera, ele mostra caráter.

A profunda ignorância é o que inspira o tom dogmático". La Bruyère