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my first proper insight into the eternal type of the professional revolutionary who feels himself lifted out of his insignificance by the mere fact of being in opposition and who clings to his dogma for want of resources within himself.
The truth is that not one of those café-conspirators ever dared a conspiracy, not one of those improvised cosmic thinkers ever was able to formulate a policy when the need was present.
the collapse of money made us feel that nothing was enduring except the eternal within ourselves.
They revolted against every legitimated form for the mere pleasure of revolting, even against the order of nature, against the eternal polarity of the sexes. The girls adopted “boyish bobs” so that they were indistinguishable from boys; the young men for their part shaved in an effort to seem girlish; homosexuality and lesbianism became the fashion, not from an inner instinct but by way of protest against the traditional and normal expressions
day I read in the statistics of the Coopération Intellectuelle of the League of Nations at Geneva that I was then the most-translated author in the world
the idea which, over the years, had become central to my life: the intellectual unification of Europe.
access to the best minds on terms of fraternity;
For the first time I had a view of the “upper” world and under such circumstances of comfort and convenience as to make advances on my part unnecessary; everything came to me unbidden.
dangerous temptation to which not a few foreign writers succumbed during their visits in Russia. They saw themselves celebrated as never before and loved by the real masses, thus considered it incumbent on them to applaud the régime under which they were so fervently read and loved;
Some years had to pass before I understood that trials challenge, persecution strengthens, and isolation exalts, provided they do not break one.
had expanded my existence immeasurably beyond the space of my being, I had established personal friendship with many of the best people of our time, had enjoyed the most perfect performances; it was given me to see and to enjoy the eternal cities, the eternal paintings, the most beautiful prospects on earth. I had retained my freedom, was not dependent on office or profession, my work was my joy and furthermore, it had brought joy to others.
the writers dream
the obscure, incomprehensible power over my life which had fulfilled so much more for me than I had ever presumed to wish, must have made it out.
But the word could still inspire him. Something tangible, a substance already scaffolded appealed to him for full dramatic realization, because musical themes sprang to him spontaneously out of situations and words,
inspiration in old age
book about Erasmus
this veiled self-portrait
he sees himself as a contemporary Erasmus
nothing seems to me more characteristic of the technique and peculiarity of modern revolutions than that in the great area of a modern capital they unfold in only a very few spots and hence remain completely
experience of the Viennese revolution, therefore, has only the value of demonstrating how little a contemporary, unless he chances to stand at the crucial spot, sees of events which alter the face of the earth and his own destiny as well.
For of recent decades Europe and the world have almost forgotten the old sacredness of personal rights and civil liberties.
Therefore it seemed a good idea to search my house by way of conspicuous announcement that none was exempt from such measures of security.
prior to the war I had never recognized England’s profound, repressed power which discloses itself only in the hour of extremest danger.
And again I asked myself: who supplies, who pays for these new uniforms, who organizes these impoverished young men, who whips them up against the powers that be, against the elected parliament, against their own legal representatives?
the masters of war
had learned and written too much history not to know that the great masses always and at once respond to the force of gravity in the direction of the powers that be.
But once again I had to recognize the shortcomings of our mortal imagination and also that one can comprehend really significant sensations only after one has suffered them oneself.
The loss in creative work, in thought, as a result of those spirit-crushing procedures is incalculable. Have not many of us spent more time studying official rules and regulations than works of the intellect!
took Salvador Dali with me,
this is really midnight in Paris
He had always been scolded as a pessimist, he said, because he had denied the supremacy of culture over the instincts;
Bath in particular because that city reflects more faithfully and impressively than any other in England a more peaceful century, the eighteenth, to the reposed eye;
