Quotes from Franz Werfel

aveva già raggiunto quel limite di età, al di là del quale l'uomo in divenire deve affermarsi non solo contro i propri umori, ma anche contro una gigantesca chimera del mondo, che gli fa sentire ad ogni minuto, soffocandolo, la nullità del suo lo appena desto.

The basic formula of all sin is: frustrated or neglected love.

Religion is the everlasting dialogue between humanity and God. Art is its soliloquy.

only those minds can be convinced of the truth which are themselves capable of sharing in its lofty quality.

Ignominy has always been the younger sister of misfortune.

In the fawning soul of the mob everything is justified by the victorious employment of force. It transfigures treachery, desertion, murder, lying, and any kind of rascality, turning them into wholesome necessities which the servile people accept and swiftly forget as a child does a bitter medicine.

Gabriele non vedeva dinanzi a sé che un inizio, il crocicchio dove le vie si dividevano. Cinque passi più avanti tutto era nebbia e tenebra. Ma avviene in ogni vita così: prima della decisione nulla è più irreale che la meta.

Il cielo era così ardentemente nudo, che anche solo l'immagine di un fiocco di nube sarebbe sembrata l'invenzione di un cantastorie.

That which serves life is the business of women. [Jeremiah, to Queen Maacha]

Every incident in the history of the world, whether it was the flight of a gnat or a great battle, revealed by the very fact of its occurrence the mystery that was inherent in it.

The latter class [peasants] is always unaffected by the course of historic events. Like cats who are attached to a house and not to the people who dwell in it, the poorer type of peasant belongs less to the nation than to the soil. Therefore, however numerous they are, they never constitute a danger for a conqueror.

The deeds of our hearts too...are not without their progeny. [Jeremiah, to Ebed-melech]

humility in the face of the unattainable, as well as unease in the face of achievement, are both prerequisites for any mastery in life.