The Golem Quotes

“The soul is not a single unity; that is what it is destined to become, and that is what we call 'immortality'. Your soul is still composed of many 'selves', just as a colony of ants is composed of many single ants. You bear within you the spiritual remains of many thousand ancestors, the heads of your line. It is the same with all creatures. How could a chicken that is artificially hatched in an incubator immediately look for the right food, if the experience of millions of years were not stored inside it? The existence of 'instinct' indicates the presence of our ancestors in our bodies and in our souls.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“It is the narrow, hidden tracks that lead back to our lost homeland, what contains the solution to the last mysteries is not the ugly scar that life's rasp leaves on us, but the fine, almost invisible writing that is engraved on our body.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“I have not let myself be stultified by science, whose highest goal is to furnish a `waiting room', which it would be best to tear down.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“A brief rustling that broke off short, as if startled at itself, then deadly silence, that agonising, watchful hush, fraught with its own betrayal, that stretched each minute to an excruciating eternity.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“You told me that a doctor used hypnotism to treat you, with the result that for a long time you lost the memory of your childhood and youth", he continued. "That is the characteristic—the stigma—of all those who have been 'bitten by the snake of the spiritual realm'. It seems almost as if, inside us, one life has to be grafted onto another, as a scion is grafted onto a wild tree, before the miracle of awakening can occur. The separation that usually comes with death is in our case achieved by erasing the memory, sometimes just by a sudden spiritual about-turn.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Разве не может быть, что невидимый, непостижимый «ветер» бросает и нас то туда, то сюда, определяя наши поступки, тогда как мы, в нашем простодушии, полагаем, что мы действуем по своей свободной воле? Что если жизнь в нас не что иное, как таинственный вихрь?!”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“There is nothing mysterious about it at all. It is only magic and sorcery--kishuf--that frighten men; life itches and burns like a hairshirt, but the rays from the sun of the spiritual world are mild and warming.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Everyone says its a myth until one day something happens in the streets that brings it back to life.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Depuis une éternité j'étais rongé par un tourment opaque - une espèce de conviction floue qu'on m'avait pris quelque chose et que j'avais cheminé comme un somnambule pendant une partie de mon existence au bord d'un abîme sans fond. Et jamais je n'étais parvenu à en élucider l'origine.”
― Gustav Meyrink, Le Golem

“Le moindre son du monde présent comporte un grand nombre d'échos, de même que tout objet, quel qu'il soit, possède à la fois une grande ombre et plusieurs ombres de moindre dimension. Or cette voix n'avait plus aucun écho. Il y avait longtemps, très longtemps que ceux-ci s'étaient dissipés, évanouis.
Et j'avais lu le livre jusqu'à la fin et le tenais encore dans mes mains ; avec l'impression d'avoir feuilleté non pas un livre, mais mon propre cerveau, à la recherche de quelque chose.
Tout ce que la voix m'avait dit, je l'avais, depuis ma naissance, porté en moi, mais tout avait été recouvert et oublié, était resté caché à ma pensée jusqu'à aujourd'hui.”
― Meyrink Gustav, The Golem

“Buchstaben zu empfinden, sie nicht nur mit den Augen in Büchern zu lesen, - einen Dolmetsch in mir selbst aufzustellen, der mir übersetzt, was die Instinkte ohne Worte raunen, darin muß der Schlüssel liegen, sich mit dem eigenen Innern durch klare Sprache zu verständigen, begriff ich.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“La vida ya es demasiado triste como para amargarla además con odio.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“De pronto comprendí en lo más profundo de su ser a esas criaturas misteriosas que viven a mi alrededor: Se mueven sin voluntad por su existencia, agitadas por una corriente magnética invisible igual que hace un momento flotaba el ramo de novia, arrastrado por el arroyo de mugre.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“¿No es posible que haya un "viento" incomprensible e invisible que nos llevara de un lado para otro, y determinara nuestras acciones, mientras que nosotros, en nuestra simpleza, creemos vivir bajo nuestra propia y libre voluntad?”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“[...] verzeihen Sie, daß ich so furchtbar gescheit daherrede, aber wenn man an der Universität ist, kommt einem eine Menge vertrottelter Bücher unter die Hände; unwillkürlich verfällt man dann in eine deppenhafte Ausdrucksweise.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Tenkrát se ve mně probudilo temné podezření: jestli nakonec i my, živé bytosti, nejsme něco podobného jako ty papírové cáry? - Jestli taky nás neprohání sem a tam nějaký neviditelný, nepochopitelný "vítr" a neurčuje naše jednání, zatímco my si ve své prostoduchosti myslíme, že se řídíme svou vlastní svobodnou vůlí? Co když život v nás není nic jiného než nevyzpytatelný větrný vír? Vítr, o němž se v Bibli říká: "Víš, odkud přichází a kam jde?" --- Cožpak se nám někdy nezdá, že jsme sáhli do hluboké vody a lapili stříbrné rybky, a ve skutečnosti se nestalo nic jiného, než že nám po ruce přejel studený závan větru?”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Quand les hommes se lèvent de leur couche, ils pensent s'être débarrassés du sommeil, sans savoir qu'ils sont victimes de leurs sens et sont alors la proie d'un nouveau sommeil bien plus profond encore que celui dont ils viennent de se défaire. Il n'existe qu'une sorte de véritable état éveillé, et c'est celui dont tu es en train de t'approcher. Parle aux hommes de cet état, et ils diront de toi que tu es malade, car ils ne peuvent te comprendre. C'est pourquoi il est inutile et cruel de leur en parler.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Celý život není nic jiného než otázky, které dostaly tvar a které v sobě nesou zárodek odpovědí - a není nic než odpovědi, které jsou obtěžkány otázkami. Kdo v něm vidí něco jiného, je blázen.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“My lidé jsme nečistí, a často je zapotřebí dlouhého postu a bdění, než porozumíme šepotu své duše.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Душа не есть нечто «отдельное», она этим только еще должна стать – и это тогда называется «бессмертием». Ваша душа еще составлена из многочисленных «я» – как муравейник из многих муравьев; вы носите в себе психические остатки многих тысяч предков: глав вашего рода.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“The struggle for immortality is a battle for the sceptre against the ghosts and sounds within us.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“The soul is not a single unity; that is what it is destined to become, and that is what we call 'immortality'. Your soul is still composed of many 'selves', just as a colony of ants is composed of many single ants. You bear within you the spiritual remains of many thousand ancestors, the heads of your line.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“The key to the art of forgetting belongs to our brothers who follow the Path of Death; but you have been made pregnant by the Spirit of Life.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“What contains the solution to the last mysteries is not the ugly scar that life's rasp leaves on us, but the fine, almost invisible writing that is engraved in our body.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Each thing in earth is nothing but an eternal symbol clothed in dust.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“I could sense that there are things, incomprehensible things, which are yoked together and race along side by side like blind horses, not knowing where their course is taking them.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Even if I were to succeed in forcing my way into that locked 'room', would that not just mean I would once again fall prey to the ghosts that have been locked away in it?”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“La mia immagine stava sulla soglia. Il mio doppio. In un mantello bianco. Una corona sulla testa. Per un breve istante. Quindi guizzarono le fiamme attraverso il legno della porta, e una calda nuvola di denso fumo soffocante invase la stanza”.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“Sometimes,” thought I, “ so strong is the burden of a man’s thoughts within him that, like spraying sparks, they leap from one’s brain to that of one’s next-door neighbour.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem

“The stale air, the incessant, inane clatter of the billiard balls, the perpetual hacking cough of a half-blind journalist opposite me, the spindle-shanked infantry officer, alternately picking his nose or combing his moustache with nicotine-stained fingers in front of a small pocket-mirror, the seething clump of vile, sweaty, gabbling Italians round the card table in the corner, now rapping their knuckles and squawking as they played their trumps, now hawking up a lump of phlegm and spewing it onto the floor: all that was bad enough, but to see it reflected two, three times over in the mirrors on the walls! It slowly sucked the blood out of my veins.”
― Gustav Meyrink, The Golem