The Robber Quotes

“...He gave such a vulnerable impression. He resembled the leaf that a little boy strikes down from its branch with a stick, because its singularity makes it conspicuous.”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“I've thought of myself a girl on several occasions because I like to polish shoes and find household tasks amusing. There was once even a time when I insisted on mending a torn suit with my own hands. And in winter I always light the heating stoves myself, as though this were the natural course of things. But of course I'm not a real girl. Please give me a moment to consider all this would entail. The first thing that comes to mind is the question of whether I might possibly be a girl has never, never, not for a single moment, troubled me, rattled my bourgeois composure or made me unhappy. An absolutely by no means unhappy person stands before you, I'd like to put quite special emphasis on this, for I have never experienced sexual torment or distress, for I was never at a loss for quite simple methods of freeing myself from pressures. A rather curious, that is to say, important discovery for me was that it filled me with the most delightful gaiety to imagine myself someone's servant.... My nature, then, merely inclines me to treat people well, to be helpful and so forth. Not long ago I carried with flabbergasting zeal a shopping bag full of new potatoes for a petit bourgeoise. She's have been perfectly able to tote it herself. Now my situation is this: my particular nature also sometimes seeks, I've discovered, a mother, a teacher, that is, to express myself better, an unapproachable entity, a sort of goddess. At times I find the goddess in an instant, whereas at others it takes time before I'm able to imagine her, that is, find her bright, bountiful figure and sense her power. And to achieve a moment of human happiness, I must always first think up a story containing an encounter between myself and another person, whereby I am always the subordinate, obedient, sacrificing, scrutinized, and chaperoned party. There's more to it, of course, quite a lot, but this still sheds light on a few things. Many conclude it must be terribly easy to carry out a course of treatment, as it were, upon my person, but they're all gravely mistaken. For, the moment anyone seems ready to start lording and lecturing it over me, something within me begins to laugh, to jeer, and then, of course, respect is out of the question, and within the apparently worthless individual arises a superior one whom I never expel when he appears in me....”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“Let us see to it that ponderers, thinkers, feelers survive in our midst.”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“A quienes conservan el sano juicio les hago el siguiente llamamiento: no leáis siempre y de manera exclusiva esos libros sanos; acercaos un poquito a la llamada literatura enfermiza, de la que tal vez podáis sacar un consuelo vital. La gente sana debería arriesgarse siempre de una u otra manera. ¿Para qué demonios, si no, conservar el sano juicio? ¿Para morir un día saludablemente? Vaya un futuro desolador”
― Robert Walser, El Bandido

“Nothing peerless has lasting value.”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“¿Acaso no es tremendamente cómodo creer en alguien? Uno se puede dejar arrastrar por la fe sin el menor esfuerzo. Uno puede ser la deshonra en persona y creer firme y piadosamente en cualquier hombre bueno y valeroso. Uno puede comer chocolate y seguir creyendo sin el menor apuro en una gran persona que acaso no tiene qué llevarse a la boca. Y es que creer no cuesta nada. Creyendo y haciendo profesión de fe se perjudica por lo menos tanto como se ayuda. (...) Quien cree realmente hasta el punto de tener que luchar consigo mismo deja de hablar de ello, no dice una sola palabra al respecto, sino que se limita a creer, a sufrir y a creer.”
― Robert Walser, El Bandido

“Чи не згубно зручна оця штука — така віра в людину? Вірячи в когось, можна втратити голову. Можна бути останнім негідником і воднораз вельми святобливо вірити в когось, скажімо, відважного й чесного. Можна наїдатися досхочу шоколадом і воднораз без жодного сумніву й далі вірити в когось такого, хто не має взагалі чого їсти. Віра ж бо не потребує ніяких витрат. Вірою в певну людину і тим, що її запевняли в цій вірі, їй завдавали аніскільки не менше шкоди, аніж давали користи.”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“Вино нас навчає пізнавати стан своєї душі. Ми все це цінуємо й воднораз не цінуємо. У вині відчувається ритм. Коли дружиш з вином, то дружиш також і з жінками й обстоюєш те, що їм любе!”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“Is it our calling to understand each other, or are we not, rather, called upon to misjudge one another, to prevent there being a surfeit of happiness and to ensure that happiness continues to be valued, and that these circumstances result in novels, which could not possibly exist if we all knew each other for what we are”
― Robert Walser, The Robber

“He considered it permissible, indeed even all but indispensable, to entertain, behind the back of his Edith, whom he couldn't break through to or perhaps never wanted to break through to, certain minor enrapturements, secondary belles, as it were, insignificant wiles with gentle smiles, so as to prevent his becoming, for instance, sentimental, which he would have found distasteful, and which in point of fact would have been just that. Unfaithfulness is morally far more valuable than sentimental clinging and fidelity. That ought to be at least a little clear to even the biggest lump.”
― Robert Walser, The Robber