Lotte in Weimar Quotes

“[Men] act in response to an outward situation, and on being presented with an opportunity to conform to a pattern. If the pattern gives licence to cruelty, so much the better. They take advantage of the licence so thoughtlessly, so thoroughly, that it becomes perfectly clear: the generality of mankind are only waiting for the chance, only waiting for outward circumstance to sanction brutality and allow them to be cruel and brutal to their heart's content.”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

“Sakykite, kas tai - meilė svetimai sužadėtinei, ir kodėl ta meilė gali tapti sunkiu ilgamečių minčių objektu? Jos padarė tai, kad man į galvą ėmė smelktis vienas žodis, ir, kad ir kaip norėdama, kad ir kaip drovėdamasi, niekaip negalėjau juo atsikratyti. Tas žodis - "parazitizmas"...”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

“<...>kaip lengva būti visų mėgstamam, guviam, linksmam, šauniam ir sąmojingam, sukti galvas moterims, kai tu neturi ko veikti ir esi laisvas kaip paukštis, kada kiti ateina pas mylimąją po sunkios dienos, pavargę nuo visokių rūpesčių ir nebeįstengia pasirodyti taip, kaip jie norėtų.”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

“Когда прошлое и настоящее сливаются воедино, к чему издавна тяготела моя жизнь, настоящее облекается в тайну. В стихах это приобретает большую прелесть, в действительности же часто нас тревожит.”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

“Der Erinnerung zu leben ist eine Sache des Alters und des Feierabends nach vollbrachtem Tagwerk. In der Jugend damit zu beginnen, das ist der Tod.”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

“[Lotte:] "My only worry is lest some day it might come out and be discovered that she is the real one, and belongs to you in the Elysian Fields, like Laura and Petrarch. That would depose me, and cast out my image from its niche in the temple of humanity. That is the thought that sometimes disturbs me until I am near to tears."

"Jealous?" he [Goethe] asked with a smile. "Is Laura’s then the only name that shall be sung? Jealous — of whom? Of your sister, nay, your reflection and other you? When the cloud forms and re-forms, is it not still the same cloud? The hundred names of God, do they not all name only the One? And you, beloved children? Life is but change of form, oneness in many, permanence in change. And you and she, you are ail one in my love — and in my guilt. Did you make your journey to be consoled for this?"

(Chapter 9)”
― Thomas Mann, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns