The Assignment Quotes

“What is going to happen? What will the future bring? I do not know, I have no presentiment. When a spider flings itself from a fixed point down into its consequences, it continually sees before it an empty space in which it can find no foothold, however much it stretches. So it is with me; before me is continually an empty space, and I am propelled by a consequence that lies behind me. This life is turned around and dreadful, not to be endured.”
― Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Assignment: or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers

“The meaning of existence is existence, which insight, once accepted and affirmed, makes existence unbearable.”
― Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Assignment: or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers

“...he had read von Lambert's book on terrorism, there were two pages devoted to the Arab resistance movement, von Lambert refused to call them terrorists, which didn't preclude, and he had emphasized this, that nonterrorists were also capable of atrocities, Auschwitz, for instance, was not the work of terrorists but of state employees...”
― Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Assignment, or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers

“[...] corroborar la lógica de que a cada observado le corresponde un observador que, siendo a su vez observado por aquel observado, se convierte él mismo en observado [...]”
― Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Assignment: or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers

“[...] saber si la cuestión de A = A era válido, pues el suponía dos A idénticas, cuando sólo podía haber una A idéntica a sí misma y, sea como fuere, referido a la realidad aquello era un absurdo, ningún hombre era idéntico a sí mismo porque estaba sometido al tiempo y, en rigor, en cada momento era distinto del que había sido en el momento anterior, a veces él tenía la impresión de ser otro cada mañana, como si un nuevo Yo hubiera desplazado a su Yo anterior y utilizara ahora su cerebro y, por lo tanto, también su memoria [...]”
― Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Assignment: or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers