E.T.A. Hoffmann > Quotes

“Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear? Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions?”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann

“So stark ist der Zauber der Musik und, immer mächtiger werdend, musste er jede Fessel einer andern Kunst zerreißen."

(Beethovens Instrumentalmusik)”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings: Kreisleriana; The Poet and the Composer; Music Criticism

“None but a poet can understand a poet; none but a romantic spirit transported with poetry and consecrated in the Holy of Holies an comprehend what the ordained utters out of his inspiration.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann

“There are... otherwise quite decent people who are so dull of nature that they believe that they must attribute the swift flight of fancy to some illness of the psyche, and thus it happens that this or that writer is said to create not other than while imbibing intoxicating drink or that his fantasies are the result of overexcited nerves and resulting fever. But who can fail to know that, while a state of psychical excitement caused by the one or other stimulant may indeed generate some lucky and brilliant ideas, it can never produce a well-founded, substantial work of art that requires the utmost presence of mind.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, Die Serapions Brüder: Gesammelte Erzählungen Und Märchen In Vier Bänden

“Let me ask you outright, gentle reader, if there have not been hours, indeed whole days and weeks of your life, during which all your usual activities were painfully repugnant, and everything you believed in and valued seemed foolish and worthless?”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“She was not too tall, and of a voluptuous build, so that my eyes wandered amid many charms that hitherto had been strangers to them.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, Weird Tales. Vol. I

“I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such magical mishaps.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“It is only in the morning that one should marry, read unfavourable reviews, make one's will, beat one's servants, and so forth.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Wer kann es sagen, wer nur ahnen, wie weit das Geistesvermögen der Tiere geht!”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr

“Erlaube," fuhr Meister Abraham fort, "erlaube, mein Johannes, mit dem Just magst du mich kaum vergleichen. Er rettete einen Pudel, ein Tier, das jeder gern um sich duldet, von dem sogar angenehme Dienstleistungen zu erwarten, mittelst Apportieren, Handschuhe-, Tabaksbeutel- und Pfeife-Nachtragen usw., aber ich rettete einen Kater, ein Tier, vonr dem sich viele entsetzen, das allgemein als perfid, keiner sanften, wohlwollenden Gesinnung, keiner offenherzigen Freundschaft fähig ausgeschrieen wird, das niemals ganz und gar die feindliche Stellung gegen den Mensch aufgibt, ja, einen Kater rettete ich aus purer uneigennütziger Menschenliebe ... Es ist das gescheiteste, artigste, ja witzigste Tier der Art, das man sehen kann, dem es nur noch an der höhern Bildung fehlt, die du, mein lieber Johannes, ihm mit leichter Mühe beibringen wirst.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr

“Perhaps, too, you will then believe that nothing is more wonderful, nothing more fantastic than real life, and that all that a writer can do is to present it as "in a glass, darkly".”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman

“But if, like a bold painter, you had first sketched in a few audacious strokes the outline of the picture you had in your own soul, you would then easily have been able to deepen and intensify the colors one after the other, until the varied throng of living figures carried your friends away and they, like you, saw themselves in the midst of the scene that had proceeded out of your own soul.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman

“Ma che cos’è, poi, la vita abituale? …Ahimè, è un eterno rigirarsi entro una cerchia ristretta, un continuo batter di naso dappertutto, un andar di piccolo passo, misurato, monotono, anche se spesso tentiamo di interromperlo con qualche virtuosistica “courbette””.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann