The Black Spider Quotes

“Where there is great pride or great wealth, men soon come to believe that their appetites are their wisdom.”
― jeremias gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Hard by the church stood the public house; so often the two are closely conjoined, honorably sharing both joys and sorrows.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“And now Christine felt as if her face was bursting open and glowing coals were being birthed from it, quickening into life and swarming across her face and all her limbs, and everything within her face had sprung to life, a fiery swarming all across her body. In the lightning’s pallid glow she saw, long-legged and venomous, innumerable black spiderlings scurrying down her limbs and out into the night, and as they vanished they were followed, long-legged and venomous, by innumerable others.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“All had suddenly lost their taste for vainglory and pride, they consigned these vices to the lowest circle of hell and would scarcely have believed even God had He assured them that just days before they themselves had ignominiously flaunted them; they were pious once more, wearing their meanest clothes and holding their old, despised rosaries in their hands, altogether convinced that they had always been like this, and if God Himself was not convinced, it was not for their want of trying.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Christine always wanted to know what was afoot, and any matter on which she was prevented from giving her opinion she took to be going badly.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“For where belief dwells, the spider may not stir, neither by day nor by night.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Then a terrible cry of distress rose to heaven from the procession of mourners, man after man collapsed, until the whole line of mourners lay in the road wrestling with death, until there was no more life among them and a heap of dead lay around the coffin, as bold warriors lie around their flag when overcome by greater forces.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, The Black Spider

“Da das Spiel sich ungestraft wiederholte, so wirkte es nicht mehr, die Mägde schrien nicht mehr, versprachen nichts mehr, und die andern Knechte begannen es auch zu treiben. Nun fing der an, mit dem Messer gegen das Loch zu fahren, mit den gräßlichsten Flüchen sich zu vermessen, er mache den Zapfen los und wolle sehen, was drinnen sei, und sie müßten einmal auch was Neues sehn. Das weckte neues Entsetzen, und der Bursche, der das tat, ward allen Meister und konnte zwingen, was er wollte, besonders bei den Mägden. Das soll aber auch ein seltsamer Mensch gewesen sein, man wußte nicht, woher er kam. Er konnte sanft tun wie ein Lamm und reißend wie ein Wolf; war er alleine bei einem Weibsbilde, so war er ein sanftes Lamm, vor der Gesellschaft aber war er wie ein reißender Wolf und tat, als ob er alle haßte, als ob er über alles auswolle mit wüsten Taten und Worten; solche sollen den Weibsbildern aber gerade die liebsten sein. Darum entsetzten sich die Mägde öffentlich vor ihm, sollen ihn aber doch, wenn sie alleine waren, am liebsten von allen gehabt haben.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Zum allgemeinen Besten, wie sie meinten, den Teufel zu brauchen, hatte keiner sich gescheut, aber persönliche Bekanntschaft mit ihm zu machen, begehrte keiner.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“spesso l'uomo non sa che compie l'estremo cammino; se lo sapesse, non farebbe quel cammino, prenderebbe un'altra strada.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“They had no thought for the meaning of Christmas and had planned to have a wildly merry time.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Usually the knights would build their castles above a road, just as inns are now built beside the road, the better to plunder the people going past, though admittedly in different ways.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne

“Then the green man’s face grew even blacker, the red beard so red it seemed to crackle and sparkle like fir twigs on the fire; the mouth contracted to an arrow-like point before it opened to inquire in the sweetest, gentlest tones.”
― Jeremias Gotthelf, Die schwarze Spinne