Summer in Baden-Baden Quotes

“and they had not been privileged to experience the dizzy descent he had surrendered to--and the humiliating things were always median and mediocre, aiming at moderation and discretion--and this was precisely what they were--only an all-consuming, all encompassing idea could liberate a man, make him free and place him above everything else, even if the means of realizing this idea had to be a crime--and all surrendering themselves to such an idea, but even of beginning to comprehend it, and they were all constantly engaged in calculation and circumspection, subordinating their lives to material considerations.”
― Leonid Tsypkin, Summer in Baden-Baden

“...but that very thought, that she might become his wife, had for some reason entered his head the very first time she sat in his study at a little round table, diligently taking down in shorthand the words he dictated in his muffled voice—and he had been purposely dry and sharp with her that day, so she would not feel the power she had already gained over him, but when, as he dictated to her, he imagined himself kneeling before her beneath the flickering light of a nearly spent candle and kissing her feet, with her unable to leave because she was his wife, and about to blow out the candle so they could plunge into the passionate, exquisite swim, then his voice became hoarse and he shut his eyes to blot out the sight of this little girl, as he purposely tried to picture her to help restrain his imagination, girl students being as untouchable as postulants...”
― Leonid Tsypkin, Summer in Baden-Baden