Quotes About Reflection

Del azar de lo leído depende lo que eres

Vom Zufall des Gelesenen hängt es ab, was du bist.

One needs time to free oneself of wrong convictions. If it happens too suddenly, they go on festering.

Ich sah verwundert, wie bescheiden, ja wie kümmerlich meine Wißbegier war, verglichen mit der eines solchen Mannes (...)

Abbandonarsi ai propri pensieri per un'ora, ogni giorno, senza scopo: basta questo per rimanere qualcosa che somigli a un uomo

Since the death of his daughter, a consumptive, he had not thrashed a woman; he lived alone.

If anyone was ever cognizant of the need and function of 'litanies', it was Kafka.

Any life is laughable if one knows it well enough. It is something serious and terrible if one knows it even better.

Met de uiterste voorzichtigheid, maandenlang mogelijkheden tegen elkaar afwegend, bijna tot in het overdrevene toe langzaam, zo streng mogelijke maatstaven aanleggend, vatte hij zijn oordeel over een letter, een woord of een hele zin pas dan samen, wanneer hij van de onaantastbaarheid ervan zeker was.

Von peinlichen Vorsicht, monatelang erwägend, langsam bis zum Überdruss, am strengsten gegen sich selbst, schloss er seine Meinung über einen Buchstaben, ein Wort oder einen ganzen Satz nur dann ab wenn er ihre Unangreifbarkeit sicher war.

Questions outlive the answers.

One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.

I don't want my past to become anyone else's future.

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

Everybody around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don't know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.

every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer . . .

Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking, loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning.

The more you ask certain questions, the more dangerous they become.

The sky is so close to the sea that it is difficult to tell which is reflected in the other, which one needs the other, which one is dominating the other.

You're shaking … so am I. It's because of Jerusalem, isn't it? One doesn't go to Jerusalem, one returns to it. That's one of its mysteries.

Life is really fascinated only by death. It vibrates only when it comes in contact with death.

If life is not a celebration, why remember it ? If life --- mine or that of my fellow man --- is not an offering to the other, what are we doing on this earth?

From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.

It is not always events that have touched us personally that affect us the most.