Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

“I believe that my observations have always led me to find that the so-called realist moves about the world with a closed mind, ringed as it were with concrete and cement, and that the so-called romantic is like an unfenced garden in and out of which truth can wander at will.”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“—You know, I’m no patriot, but I love my countrymen. A country, a fatherland, there’s something abstract about that. But a countryman is something concrete. I can’t possibly love every wheat and maize field, every pine forest, every swamp, every Polish lady and gentleman, but show me one field, one copse, one swamp, one individual, well, 'à la bonheur'! That’s something I can see and understand, that speaks to me in a language I am familiar with, that â€� because of its singularity â€� can be dear to me. And beyond that, there are persons I term my countrymen, even if they happen to have been born in China or Persia or Africa. Some are dear to me from the moment I first clap eyes on them. A true ‘countryman is immediately identifiable. And if he happens to be someone from my own patch as well, then, as I say, 'à la bonheur'! But there’s an element of chance there, the other is simple providence.
He raised his glass, and called out:
—Here’s to my countrymen, wherever they happen to hail from!”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“It wasn’t till much later â€� long after the Great War, which people call the “World War,â€� and in my view rightly, and not for the usual reason, that the whole world was involved in it, but rather because as a result of it we lost a whole world, our world.”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“As he spoke he stroked both sides of his mutton-chop whiskers as if he wished to caress simultaneously both halves of the Monarchy”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“I am not a man of my time. In fact I find it hard not to declare myself its enemy. Not, as I often remark, that I fail to understand it. My comment is merely a pious one. Because I am easy-going I prefer not to be aggressive or hostile and therefore I say that I do not understand those matters which I ought to say I hate or despise. I have sharp ears but I pretend to be hard of hearing, finding as I do that is more elegant to feign this handicap than to admit that I have heard some vulgar sound”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“Es ist eines der Geheimnisse der Muetter: sie verzichten niemals, ihre Kinder wiederzusehn, ihre totgeglaubten nicht und auch nicht ihre wirklich toten; und wenn es moeglich waehre dass ein totes Kind wiederauferstuende vor seiner Mutter, wuerde sie es in ihre Arme nehmen, so selbstverstaendlich, als waere es nicht aus dem Jenseits sondern aus einem der fernen Gegenden des Diesseits heimgekehrt. Eine Mutter erwarted die Wiederkehr ihres Kindes immer: ganz gleichgueltig, ob es in ein fernes Land gewandert ist, in ein nahes oder den Tod.”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“â€� seine Rede, die immer um zwei, drei Stärken lauter war, als es der Raum erforderte, in dem er gerade sprach. Es war, als wüsste er überhaupt nicht, dass es kleine und größere Räume gibt, ein Zimmer und eine Bahnhofshalle zum Beispiel.”
― Joseph Roth, Kapuzinergruft: Roman (Werke Bd. 6, Seite 227-346)

“Je ne sentais pas d'aise, j'étais rentré dans mes foyers. Nous avions tous perdu notre position, notre rang, notre maison, notre argent, notre valeur, notre passé, notre présent, notre avenir. Chaque matin en nous levant, chaque nuit en nous couchant, nous maudissions la mort qui nous avait invités en vain à son énorme fête. Et chacun de nous enviait ceux qui étaient tombés au champ d'honneur. Ils reposaient sous la terre. Au printemps prochain, leus dépouilles donneraient naissance aux violettes. Mais nous, c'ést à jamais inféconds que nous étions revenus de la guerre, les reins paralysés, race vouée à la mort, que la mort avait dedaignée. La décision irrévocable de son conseil de révision macabre se formulait ainsi: impropre à la mort.”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“La Crypte des capucins, où mes empereurs gisent dans leurs sarcophages de pierre, était fermée.
Un frère vint à ma rencontre, il me demanda:
- Que désirez-vous?
- Je veux voir le cerceuil de l'empereur François-Joseph.
- Dieu vous bénisse, me dit le capucin, en faisant le signe de la croix.
- Dieu protège l'empereur! m'écriai-je.
- Chut! fit le moine.
Où aller à présent? Où aller? Moi, un Trotta?”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“Sedeva nel suo vecchio salone, nella sua vecchia casa. Era quasi irriconoscibile perché si era fatto tagliare i baffi. «Perché, a che scopo?» gli chiesi. «Per somigliare al mio domestico. Io sono il lacchè di me stesso. Mi apro da solo la porta. Mi pulisco da me gli stivali. Quando ho bisogno di qualcosa, suono e mi presento io stesso. Signor conte comanda? â€� Sigarette! â€� Al che, mi spedisco dal tabaccaio.”
― Joseph Roth, La Cripta dei Cappuccini

“People today would hardly understand me if I started writing about freedom and honour ... Nowadays, silence is the better policy. I am writing purely to obtain clarity for myself, and, so to speak, 'pro nomine dei.' May He forgive me my sin!”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb

“The Church of Rome is the only brace in this rotten world. The only giver and retainer of form. By enshrining the traditional element "handed down" in its dogmas, as in an icy palace, it abstains and bestows upon its children the license to play round this icy palace, which has spacious grounds, to indulge irresponsibility, even to pardon the forbidden, or to enact it. By instituting sin, it forgives sins. It sees that there is no man without flaw: that is the wonderfully humane thing about it. Its flawless children become saints. By that alone, it concedes the flawed nature of mankind. It concedes sinfulness to such a degree even that it refuses to see beings as human if they are not sinful: they will be sainted or holy. In so doing the Church of Rome shows its most exalted tendacy, namely to forgive. There is no more nobler tendency than forgiveness. And by the same token, there is none more vulgar than to seek revenge. There is no nobility without generosity, just as there is no vengefulness without vulgarity.”
― Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb