Quotes from Claudio Magris

The great commander knows that in order to win one needs to know the remote and also the immediate reasons for the war, the capacities of the soldiers, which is to say the social and political make-up of the states, determining the variety, the quality and the character of the men.

El desencanto es un oxímoron, una contradicción que el intelecto no puede resolver y que sólo la poesía puede expresar y custodiar

Judge not,' it has been said, but being a juryman can be a pleasant occupation when one is not weighing up human actions and years in prison, but the books or the wines of the season.

istoria este un abator si in orice excursie turistica sau calatorie instructiva in locurile bogate in istorie intra grosolana si cruda vulgaritate a celor care se bucura se suferinta altora ca de un spectacol.

I'll end up believing, like him, that everything is war and every mark a scar. She ran a finger lightly over the blade of a sword temporarily hung on the wall; the line it left on her skin, though distinct, quickly vanished.

Toda e qualquer vida se decide na capacidade de crença ou na sua ausência, toda e qualquer viagem se joga entre a pausa e a fuga.

Per Goethe [...] l'innaturale probabilmente non esisteva: la natura goethiana abbraccia e avvolge ogni cosa ed è lei che muove e crea, con elusiva ironia, tutte le forme, pure quelle che sembrano negarla e che agli uomini appaiono "innaturali". (Danubio, p.37)

Today, questioning oneself about Europe means asking oneself how one relates to Germany.