Elias Canetti citáty

strana 2

„Nastavoval druhou tvář tak dlouho, až mu na ni přilepili řád.“

„Na cestách člověk všechno přijímá, rozhořčení zůstává doma. Člověk se dívá, naslouchá, i ty nejstrašnější věci v něm vzbuzují nadšení, protože jsou nové. Dobří cestovatelé jsou bezcitní.“

„Jeden jediný člověk, kterého skutečně vyslechneme, nás přivede na dokonale nové myšlenky.“

„Můžeme si ještě vymyslet něco, z čeho bychom neměli strach?“

“I repulse death with all my strength. If I accepted it, I would be a murderer.”

“There is something impure in the laments about the dangers of our time, as if they could serve to excuse our personal failure.”

“The unconscious, which those who always speak of it least possess.”

“I hate judgments that only crush and don’t transform.”

“One should tell oneself how fruitful misunderstandings are. One shouldn’t despise them. One of the wisest people was a collector of misunderstandings.”

“His great holy books, which he does not know. They are so holy that he does not dare to open them.”

““He is a lesser figure than X”—how it pleases an Englishman to say that! Never suspecting what basement that would put him in, a wood louse.”

“A mind, lean in its own language. In others, it gets fat.”

“I was never drawn to experiment with language; I take note of such experiments, but avoid them in my own writing. The reason is that the substance of life claims me completely. To indulge in linguistic experiments is to ignore the greater part of this substance, leaving all but a tiny portion untouched and unused, as if a musician were to ceaselessly play an instrument with his little finger only.”

“You don’t have to know a philosopher’s every syllable to know why he rubs you the wrong way. You may know it best after a few of his sentences, and les and less well after that. The important thing is to see his web and move away before you tear it.”

“You keep taking note of whatever confirms your ideas—better to write down what refutes and weakens them!”

“The story of your youth must not turn into a catalog of what became important in your later life. It must also contain the dissipation, the failure, and the waste.”