Old Masters Quotes

“Art altogether is nothing but a survival skill, we should never lose sight of this fact, it is, time and again, just an attempt -- an attempt that seems touching even to our intellect -- to cope with this world and its revolting aspects, which, as we know, is invariably possible only by resorting to lies and falsehoods, to hyprocrisy and self-deception, Reger said. These pictures are full of lies and falsehoods and full of hypocrisy and self-deception, there is nothing else in them if we disregard their often inspired artistry. All these pictures, moreover, are an expression of man's absolute helplessness in coping with himself and with what surrounds him all his life. That is what all these pictures express, this helplessness which, on the one hand, embarasses the intellect and, on the other hand, bewilders the same intellect and moves it to tears, Reger said.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“The art historians are the real wreckers of art, Reger said. The art historians twaddle so long about art until they have killed it with their twaddle. Art is killed by the twaddle of the art historians. My God, I often think, sitting here on the settee while the art historians are driving their helpless flocks past me, what a pity about all these people who have all art driven out of them, driven out of them for good, by these very art historians. The art historians’ trade is the vilest trade there is, and a twaddling art historian, but then there are only twaddling art historians, deserves to be chased out with a whip, chased out of the world of art, Reger said, all art historians deserve to be chased out of the world of art, because art historians are the real wreckers of art and we should not allow art to be wrecked by the art historians who are really art wreckers. Listening to an art historian we feel sick, he said, by listening to an art historian we see the art he is twaddling about being ruined, with the twaddle of the art historian art shrivels and is ruined. Thousands, indeed tens of thousands of art historians wreck art by their twaddle and ruin it, he said. The art historians are the real killers of art, if we listen to an art historian we participate in the wrecking of art, wherever an art historian appears art is wrecked, that is the truth.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“We even understand a philosophical essay better if we do not gobble it up entirely and at one go, but pick out a detail from which we then arrive at the whole, if we are lucky. Our greatest pleasure, surely, is in fragments, just as we derive the most pleasure from life if we regard it as a fragment, whereas the whole and the complete and perfect are basically abhorrent to us. Only when we are fortunate enough to turn something whole, something complete or indeed perfect into a fragment, when we get down to reading it, only then do we experience a high degree, at times indeed a supreme degree, of pleasure in it.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“And you realize that it was not those great minds and not those old masters which kept you alive for decades but that it was this one single person whom you loved more than anyone else.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“We fill our mental strong-room with these great minds and old masters and resort to them at the crucial moment in our lives;”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“I hate nothing more profoundly than the multitude... the accumulation of people, the concentration of vileness and mindlessness and lies. Much as we should love each individual, I believe, so we hate the mass.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Our mother celebrated all our birthdays, not a single one of our birthdays was not celebrated, I hated those birthday celebrations, as you may imagine, just as I hate any celebrations, I hate anything festive, anything solemn to this day, nothing is more distasteful to me than celebrating or being celebrated, I am a hater of festivities, he said, from childhood I have hated all feasting and celebrating and above all I have hated birthday celebrations, no matter what birthday it was, and most of all I hated a parental birthday being celebrated; how can a person celebrate a birthday, his birthday, I have always wondered, when it is a misfortune to be in this world at all; yes, I always thought if people were to observe a memorial hour on their birthday, a memorial hour for the monstrous deed their progenitors had committed against them, that I would understand, but surely not a festivity, he said.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“It is not necessary to read all of Goethe or all of Kant, it is not necessary to read all of Schopenhauer; a few pages of Werther, a few pages of Elective Affinities and we know more in the end about the two books than if we had read them from beginning to end, which would anyway deprive us of the purest enjoyment.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Eu mai curând răsfoiesc decât citesc, să știți, și-mi place răsfoitul la fel de mult ca și cititul, în viața mea am răsfoit de un milion de ori mai mult decât am citit, dar cu răsfoitul am trăit mereu cel puțin la fel de multă bucurie și plăcere intelectuală veritabilă ca și cu cititul. E totuși mai bine să citim cu totul doar trei pagini dintr-o carte de patru sute, dar de o mie de ori mai temeinic decât cititorul obișnuit, cel care citește totul, dar nici măcar o singură pagină temeinic, spunea el. E mai bine să citim douăsprezece rânduri dintr-o carte cu maximă intensitate și să pătrundem către totalitate, cum s-ar zice, decât să citim toată cartea ca cititorul obișnuit, care la sfârșit știe la fel de puțin despre cartea citită ca și pasagerul din avion despre peisajul deasupra căruia zboară. El nu-i percepe nici măcar contururile. Așa citesc astăzi oamenii totul, în fugă, citesc tot și nu pricep nimic. Eu pășesc într-o carte și mă cufund cu totul în ea, gândiți-vă la o pagină sau două dintr-o lucrare filosofică, de parcă aș păși într-un peisaj, în natură, într-o formațiune statală, pe vreun colț al planetei, dacă vreți, cu totul și cu totul și nu doar cu jumătate din puteri și cu jumătate de inimă, pătrund în acest colț al pământului ca să-l cercetez și apoi, după ce l-am cercetat cu toată temeinicia de care sunt în stare, să conchid asupra întregului. Cine citește totul, n-a priceput nimic, spunea el. Nu-i nevoie să-l citești pe Goethe în întregime, nici pe Kant în întregime, și nici pe Schopenhauer nu-i nevoie să-l citești în întregime, câteva pagini din Werther, câteva pagini din Afinități elective, iar la sfârșit știm mai mult despre ambele cărți decât dacă le-am fi citit de la început până la sfârșit, ceea ce ne-ar priva în orice caz de plăcerea cea mai pură. Dar pentru această autolimitare drastică e nevoie de atâta curaj și de atâta forță spirituală, încât doar rareori le găsești, iar noi înșine le găsim rareori; omul care citește este lacom în modul cel mai dezgustător, și precum acel ce devorează carnea, își strică stomacul și sănătatea și capul și toată existența spirituală.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Wehe, Sie lesen eindringlicher, Sie ruinieren sich alles, was Sie lesen. Es ist ganz gleich, was Sie lesen, es wird am Ende lächerlich und ist am Ende nichts wert. Hüten Sie sich vor dem Eindringen in Kunstwerke, sagte er, Sie verderben sich alles und jedes, selbst das Geliebteste.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Surely it is better to read altogether only three pages of a four-hundred-page book a thousand times more thoroughly than the normal reader who reads everything but does not read a single page thoroughly... It is better to read twelve lines of a book with the utmost intensity and thus to penetrate into them to the full, as one might say, rather than read the whole book as the normal reader does, who in the end knows the book he has read no more than an air passenger knows the landscape he overflies.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“literature is not conceivable without philosophy or the other way round”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“I enter into a book and settle in it, neck and crop, you should realize, in one or two pages of a philosophical essay as if I were entering a landscape, a piece of nature, a state organism, a detail of the earth, if you like, in order to penetrate into it entirely and not just with half my strength or half-heartedly, in order to explore it and then, having explored it with all the thoroughness at my disposal, drawing conclusions as to the whole.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Tog Hajdegera svi su oni
decenijama halapljivo gutali kao nikog drugog i punili njime svoj stomak,
ti nemački germanisti i filozofi. Hajdegerov lik je bio običan, bez ikakvog
duhovnog obeležja, rekao je Reger, bio je naskroz neduhovan čovek,
lišen svake fantazije, lišen svakog senzibiliteta, pranemački filozofski
preživar, večno presićena filozofska krava, rekao je Reger, koja je pasla
po nemačkoj filozofiji i decenijama po njoj sejala svoju koketnu balegu u
Crnoj šumi. Hajdeger je još i
danas najdraži filozof u svetu nemačkih žena. Filozof za žene, eto šta je
Hajdeger, filozof za ručak koji naročito prija nemačkom filozofskom
apetitu i dolazi pravo iz učenjačke peći. Ipak,
što se tiče filozofije, Hajdeger je završio svoje, dok je do pre deset
godina još bio veliki mislilac, sad se on provlači samo takoreći u
pseudointelektualnim domaćinstvima i po pseudointelektualnim
društvima, i njihovoj ukupnoj prirodnoj dvoličnosti dodaje još jednu,
veštačku. S duhom ima Hajdeger
podjednako malo veze kao Štifter s književnim stvaranjem, verujte mi,
obojica su, što se filozofije i književnog stvaralaštva tiče, jednako
bezvredni, iako Štiftera ipak cenim više nego Hajdegera, koji mi je
oduvek bi odvratan, jer mi je sve kod Hajdegera uvek bilo odvratno, ne
samo noćna kapica na glavi i zimske gaće iz kućne radinosti koje on lično
podgrejava na peći u Todnaubergu, ne samo njegov švarcvaldski štap
kojeg je lično odeljao, nego baš njegova švarcvaldska filozofija koju je
lično odeljao, sve mi je kod tog tragikomičnog čoveka uvek bilo
odvratno, uvek mi se duboko gadilo, kad god bih na njega pomislio.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“We hate people and yet we want to be with them because only with people and among people do we stand a chance of carrying on without going insane. We cannot in fact bear to be alone for very long, Reger said, we believe we can be alone, we believe we can be left on our own, we persuade ourselves that we can manage on our own, Reger said, but this is a chimera. Without people we have not the slightest hope of survival, Reger said, no matter how many great minds and old masters we have taken on as companions, they do not replace a human being, Reger said, in the end we are abandoned by all those so-called great minds and by all those so-called old masters and we realize that we are, on top of it, being mocked in the vilest manner by these great minds and old masters and we find that with all those great minds and with all those old masters we have always only had a mocking relationship.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“When you have lost your closest human being everything seems empty to you, look wherever you like, everything is empty, and you look and look and you see that everything is really empty and, what is more, for ever, Reger said. And you realize that it was not those great minds and not those old masters which kept you alive for decades but that it was this one single person whom you loved more than anyone else.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Heidegger apequenou toda grandeza de tal forma a fazê-la acessível aos alemães — entende? —, acessível aos alemães, disse Reger. Ele é o pequeno-burguês da filosofia alemã, aquele que a cobriu com seu gorro kitsch de dormir, o gorro preto e kitsch de dormir que Heidegger sempre usou, em todas as ocasiões. Heidegger é o filósofo de pantufas, o filósofo de gorro de dormir dos alemães, nada mais que isso. Não sei, disse Reger ontem, sempre que penso em Stifter penso também em Heidegger, e vice-versa. Não é coincidência que Heidegger, assim como Stifter, disse Reger, sempre tenha sido e continue sendo popular sobretudo entre mulheres rijas; assim como, solícitas e prepotentes, as freiras e as enfermeiras têm em Stifter seu, por assim dizer, prato preferido, assim também elas consomem Heidegger.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Mestres Antigos

“Ne poznajem, doduše, nijednog pisca ili bar nijednog čoveka koji piše, koji bi uopše mogao da izdrži duže vreme da ne objavi ono što je napisao, koji ne bi želeo da zna šta javnost kaže o onom što je napisao, ja uvek gorim od želje za tim, rekao je Reger, mada uvek kažem da ne gorim od želje za tim, da me to ne zanima, da ne želim da znam šta javnost misli, ja gorim od želje za tim, lažem, naravno, kad kažem da ne gorim od želje za tim, dok u stvari neprekidno gorim od želje za tim, priznajem to, uvek gorim od želje za tim, neprestano, rekao je.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Alte Meister: gezeichnet von Nicolas Mahler

“Tatsächlich erinnert mich Stifter immer wieder an Heidegger, an diesen lächerlichen nationalsozialistischen Pumphosenspießer. Hat Stifter die hohe Literatur auf die unverschämteste Weise total verkitscht, so hat Heidegger, der Schwarzwaldphilosoph Heidegger, die Philosophie verkitscht, Heidegger und Stifter haben jeder für sich, auf seine Weise, die Philosophie und die Literatur heillos verkitscht. Heidegger, dem die Kriegs- und Nachkriegsgenerationen nachgelaufen sind und den sie mit widerwärtigen und stupiden Doktorarbeiten überhäuft haben schon zu Lebzeiten, sehe ich immer auf seiner Schwarzwaldhausbank sitzen neben seiner Frau, die ihm in ihrem perversen Strickenthusiasmus ununterbrochen Winterstrümpfe strickt mit der von ihr selbst von den eigenen Heideggerschafen heruntergeschorenen Wolle. Heidegger kann ich nicht anders sehen, als auf der Hausbank seines Schwarzwaldhauses, neben sich seine Frau, die ihn zeitlebens total beherrscht und die ihm alle Strümpfe gestrickt und alle Hauben gehäkelt hat und die ihm das Brot gebacken und das Bettzeug gewebt und die ihm selbst seine Sandalen geschustert hat.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Przez całe życie z daleka się trzymałem od podziwiania, nie należę do tych, co podziwiają, obcy jest mi podziw, nie ma co się dziwić, podziw zawsze był mi obcy i nic nie odpycha mnie tak, jak obserwacja tych, którzy podziwiają, ogarnięci chorobą podziwiania. Idzie pan do kościoła, ludzie podziwiają, idzie pan do muzeum, ludzie podziwiają. Idzie pan na koncert, ludzie podziwiają, to odrażające. Prawdziwy umysł nie zna w ogóle podziwu, przyjmuje do wiadomości, potrafi uszanować, patrzy z uwagą, to wszystko […]”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Tot ce-i la modă mi-a repugnat întodeauna.Probabil că sufăr de ceea ce am numit egoism artistic,în privinţa artei vreau totul numai pt mine,vreau să-l am singur pe Schopenhauer al meu,pe Pascal al meu,pe Novalis al meu şi pe mult iubitul meu Gogol,vreau să posed numai eu singur aceste produse de artă,aceste agresiuni artistice geniale,vreau să-i am eu singur pe Michelangelo,Renoir,Goya.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Eu sunt un gânditor posesiv.Mi-ar fi plăcut să cred că Goya a pictat numai pentru mine,Gogol şi Goethe au scris numai pentru mine,Bach a compus numai pnetru mine.Cum aceasta este un paralogism,iar pe deasupra şi o teribilă infamie,sunt în fond mereu nefericit.
Chiar dacă citesc o carte,am totuşi sentimentul şi înţelegerea că aceasta către mine a fost scrisă,numai pentru mine.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Suddenly you realize what emptiness is when you stand there amidst thousands and thousands of books and writings which have left you totally alone, which suddenly mean nothing to you except that terrible emptiness, Reger said.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Because I have always looked at everything totally, always listened to everything totally, always read everything totally, or at least always tried to listen to everything totally and to read and view everything totally, I ended up by ultimately making everything abhorrent to me, in this way I made all art and all music and all literature abhorrent to me, he said yesterday.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy

“Aber alles das, die ganze Kunst, wie auch immer, ist nichts gegen den einzigen geliebten Menschen … Wir können uns noch so viele große Geister und noch so viele Alte Meister als Gefährten genommen haben, sie ersetzen keinen Menschen.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters: A Comedy