Status Updates From The Man Without Qualities

the role of present-day finance seemed to him similar to that of the Catholic Church: a great influence behind the scenes; unyielding yet yielding in its dealings with the ruling powers; and he sometimes saw himself functioning like a cardinal.

Words leap like monkeys from tree to tree, but in that dark place where a man has his roots he is deprived of their kind mediation.

civilization … is a frustrating condition, full of soap, radio frequencies, the arrogant sign language of mathematical and chemical formulas, economics, experimental research, and the inability of human beings to live together simply but on a high plane.