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Top Thomas Bernhard Quotes

Browse top 68 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Thomas Bernhard.

Favorite Thomas Bernhard Quotes

1. "... Whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do, and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it's the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we're finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it's better to die having made the journey we're been longing for than to be stifled by our longing." ~ Thomas Bernhard
2. "Women were like rivers, their banks were unreachable, the night often rang with the cries of the drowned." ~ Thomas Bernhard
3. "In die Natur hineingehen und in dieser Natur ein- und ausatmen und in dieser Natur nichts als tatsächlich und für immer Zuhause zu sein, das empfände er als das höchste Glück. In den Wald gehen, tief in den Wald hinein, sagte der Burgschauspieler, sich gänzlich dem Wald überlassen, das ist es immer gewesen, der Gedanke, nichts anderes, als selbst Natur zu sein." ~ Thomas Bernhard
4. "I avoid literature whenever possible, because whenever possible I avoid myself..." ~ Thomas Bernhard
5. "The study of sickness is the most poetic of the sciences." ~ Thomas Bernhard
6. "People keep a dog and are ruled by this dog, and even Schopenhauer was ruled in the end not by his head, but by his dog. This fact is more depressing than any other." ~ Thomas Bernhard
7. "Ausgerechnet der Mensch ist unmenschlich." ~ Thomas Bernhard
8. "The only friends I have are the dead who have bequethed their writings to me--I have no others." ~ Thomas Bernhard
9. "perfidious society masturbators" ~ Thomas Bernhard
10. "What is ridiculous about human beings, Doctor,' the prince said, 'is actually their total incapacity to be ridiculous" ~ Thomas Bernhard
11. "All my life I have had the utmost admiration for suicides. I have always considered them superior to me in every way." ~ Thomas Bernhard
12. "We must allow ourselves to think, we must dare to think, even though we fail. It is in the nature of things that we always fail, because we suddenly find it impossible to order our thoughts, because the process of thinking requires us to consider every thought there is, every possible thought. Fundamentally we have always failed, like all the others, whoever they were, even the greatest minds. At some point, they suddenly failed and their system collapsed, as is proved by their writings, which we admire because they venture farthest into failure. To think is to fail, I thought." ~ Thomas Bernhard
13. "A criminal is undoubtedly a poor soul, who is punished for his poverty." ~ Thomas Bernhard
14. "I really only write about inner landscapes and most people don't see them, because they see practically nothing within, because they think that because it's inside, it's dark, and so they don't see anything. I don't think I've ever yet, in any of my books, described a landscape. There's really nothing of the kind in any of them. I only ever write concepts. And so I'm always referring to "mountains" or "a city" or "streets." But as to how they look: I've never produced a description of a landscape. That's never even interested me." ~ Thomas Bernhard
15. "[...] Das allerdings ist ein absurder Gedanke. Andererseits sind, wie ich im Laufe meines Lebens jetzt schon mit Entschiedenheit weiß, gerade die absurden Gedanken die klarsten Gedanken und die absurdesten die wichtigsten überhaupt." ~ Thomas Bernhard
16. "In the end we remember all the students we've gone to school with and invite them to our homes only to find out that we no longer have the least thing in common with them, I thought." ~ Thomas Bernhard
17. "Wenn wir nicht wüssten, wieviele Millionen von außerordentlichen Talenten an jedem Tage in aller Welt verkümmern müssen, weil sie von keinem aufgehoben und angepackt und entwickelt und schließlich zu den höchsten Höhen hinauf entwickelt werden!" ~ Thomas Bernhard
18. "Schon die Vorbereitungen unserer Eltern auf die Berge hatten uns gegen sie und dadurch gegen die Berge aufgebracht, gegen die frische Luft und gegen die von unseren Eltern ununterbrochen herbeigesehnte Ruhe, die sie in den Bergen zu finden glaubten, aber doch nie als in ihnen, wie wir wissen, gefunden haben; schon wie sie von dem neuerlichen bevorstehenden Hochgebirgsaufenthalt gesprochen haben, wie sie ihre Hochgebirgshabseligkeiten eingepackt und uns mit diesem Einpacken ihrer Hochgebirgshabseligkeiten konfrontiert haben, hatte uns gegen ihre Hochgebirgsabsicht und gegen ihre Hochgebirgsleidenschaft und schließlich gegen ihren Hochgebirgswahnsinn aufgebracht und wir waren von dieser ihrer Hochgebirgsabsicht und -leidenschaft, wie von ihrem Hochgebirgswahnsinn abgestoßen gewesen." ~ Thomas Bernhard
19. "I had to spend my entire childhood in the Altensam dungeon like an inmate doing time for no comprehensible reason, for a crime he can't remember committing, a judicial error probably." ~ Thomas Bernhard
20. "Nature, not yet polluted by human beings, hence his early rising." ~ Thomas Bernhard
21. "When a body is acted upon by external forces besides its weight it tips over on one side of the base if the (so-called) weight (vector) acts along a line through the so-called center-of-mass that intersects the supporting surface outside the base of the body; in the case of a stable equilibrium, the weight vector points inside the base, in the case of an unstable equilibrium it points exactly toward the tilting edge of the base, "tilting edge of the base" underlined. We always went to far, so Roithamer, so we were always pushing toward the extreme limit. But we never thrust ourselves beyond it. Once I have thrust myself beyond it, it's all over, so Roithamer, "all" underlined. We're always set toward the predetermined moment, "predetermined moment" underlined. When that moment has come, we don't know that it has come, but it is the right moment. We can exist at the heighest degree of intensity as long as we live, so Roithamer (June 7). The end is no process. Clearing." ~ Thomas Bernhard
22. "Und ich denke heute, die Menschen, die in unserem Leben wirklich etwas bedeutet haben, können wir an den Fingern einer Hand abzählen und sehr oft sträubt sich sogar diese eine Hand gegen die Perversität, in welcher wir glauben, eine ganze Hand zum Abzählen dieser Menschen heranziehen zu müssen, wo wir doch, wenn wir ehrlich sind, wahrscheinlich ohne einen einzigen Finger auskommen." ~ Thomas Bernhard
23. "Those who live in the country get idiotic in time, without noticing it, for a while they think it's original and good for their health, but life in the country is not original at all, for anyone who wasn't born in and for the country it shows a lack of taste and is only harmful to their health. The people who go walking in the country walk right into their own funeral in the country and at the very least they lead a grotesque existence which leads them first into idiocy, then into an absurd death." ~ Thomas Bernhard
24. "Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost." ~ Thomas Bernhard
25. "Instead of committing suicide, people go to work." ~ Thomas Bernhard
26. "You are never truly together with one you love until the person in question is dead and actually inside you." ~ Thomas Bernhard
27. "No he tenido las ilusiones de mi abuelo, pero no he evitado los mismos errores que él. El mundo no es tan importante como él creía, y todo lo que hay en él no tiene el valor que él temió durante toda su vida, y las palabras altisonantes y las frases altisonantes las he tomado siempre como lo que son: manifestaciones de incompetencia que no deben escucharse." ~ Thomas Bernhard
28. "Wir können uns einreden, dass wir mit einem Buch nicht allein sind, wie wir uns einreden können, dass wir mit einem Menschen nicht allein sind." ~ Thomas Bernhard
29. "In theory we understand people, but in practice we can't put up with them, I thought, deal with them for the most part reluctantly and always treat them from our point of view. We should observe and treat people not from our point of view but from all angles, I thought, associate with them in such a way that we can say we associate with them so to speak in a completely unbiased way, which however isn't possible, since we actually are always biased against everybody." ~ Thomas Bernhard
30. "Everything is what it is, that's all. If we keep attaching meanings and mysteries to everything we perceive, everything we see that is, and to everything that goes on inside us, we are bound to go crazy sooner or later, I thought." ~ Thomas Bernhard
31. "Unfulfilled WishA woman in Atzbach was murdered by her husband because, in his opinion, she had carried the wrong child with her to safety from their burning house. She had not saved their eight-year old son, for whom the man had special plans, but had saved their daughter, who was not loved by the husband. When the husband was asked, in the District Court in Wels, what plans he had had for his son, who had been completely consumed by the fire, the husband replied that he had intended him to be an anarchist and a mass murderer of dictatorships and thus a destroyer of the state." ~ Thomas Bernhard
32. "One day you're cut off, at the very start you're cut off and can't go back, the language you learn and the whole business of walking and all the rest is for the sake of the single thought, how to get back again." ~ Thomas Bernhard
33. "We publish only to satisfy out craving for fame; there's no other motive except the even baser one of making money...." ~ Thomas Bernhard
34. "La producción literaria de hoy, en conjunto, ha llegado a su punto más bajo y alcanzado su peor gusto desde hace años. No se publican más que cursiladas y basura sin pies ni cabeza." ~ Thomas Bernhard
35. "FLEISCHMANN: How are you feeling at the moment?BERNHARD: Extremely content, I have to say. The water's splashing, the sun is shining; simple Spaniards and Englishmen who can't be understood [are talking]—an ideal constellation. But it won't last long. All of a sudden the whole thing is struck by a bolt of lightning that destroys it completely. But perhaps today it'll last all the way through till night; anything's possible. Occasionally everything's nice for a couple of days at a stretch.—Thomas Bernhard Interviewed by Krista Fleischmann" ~ Thomas Bernhard
36. "Toda idea, al fin y al cabo, es una idea demencial." ~ Thomas Bernhard
37. "Alles ist jeden Tag tagtäglicheine Wiederholung von Wiederholungen." ~ Thomas Bernhard
38. "Las palabras echan a perder lo que se piensa, el papel ridiculiza lo que se piensa." ~ Thomas Bernhard
39. "Parasta päättämisessä on että päättää antaa olla. Jos on mahdotonta ymmärtää, on lopetettava ymmärtäminen ja vain kuvattava. Ja koska mitään asiaa ei voi käsittää, on vain tehtävä asioista selko." ~ Thomas Bernhard
40. "...if that handsome fellow were a cripple he wouldn't repel me, but he isn't a cripple, he is that handsome fellow, so he repels me..." ~ Thomas Bernhard
41. "Tacno je da sam srecan samo u kolima, izmedu mesta sa kojeg sam krenuo i mesta ka kojem sam se uputio. Srecan sam samo kada putujem. Kada stignem, nebitno gde, odjednom postajem najnesrecnije moguce bice. U suštini, ja sam jedno od onih stvorenja koja ne mogu da podnesu da se nalaze bilo gde i srecna su samo izmedu mesta. Godinama sam verovao da ce me takvo katastrofalno stanje neizbežno odvesti u potpuno ludilo, kojega sam se pribojavao celog života." ~ Thomas Bernhard
42. "¿Podría responderme la pregunta de por qué los editores publican rápidamente lo que gente muy joven escribe en muy poco tiempo, sin ningún esfuerzo, sin ningún genio y de forma muy estúpida?" ~ Thomas Bernhard
43. "¿No se le ha ocurrido que los hombres viven en cementerios? ¿Que las grandes ciudades son grandes cementerios? ¿Las pequeñas ciudades cementerios más pequeños? ¿Los pueblos cementerios más pequeños todavía? ¿Que una cama es un ataúd? ¿Que los vestidos son mortajas? ¿Todo ensayos para la muerte? La existencia entera un eterno ensayar para la capilla ardiente y el entierro." ~ Thomas Bernhard
44. "Auf Goethe, den philosophischen Kleinbürger, auf Goethe, den Lebensopportunisten, von welchem Maria immer gesagt hat, daß er die Welt nicht auf den Kopf gestellt, sondern den Kopf in den deutschen Schrebergarten gesteckt hat. Auf Goethe, den Gesteinsnummerierer, den Sterndeuter, den philosophischen Daumenlutscher der Deutschen, der ihre Seelenmarmelade abgefüllt hat in ihre Haushaltsgläser für alle Fälle und alle Zwecke. Auf Goethe, der den Deutschen die Binsenwahrheiten gebündelt und als allerhöchstes Geistesgut durch Cotta hat verkaufen und durch die Oberlehrer in ihre Ohren hat schmieren lassen, bis zur endgültigen Verstopfung. [...] Allen verdirbt er den Magen, sagte ich, nur den Deutschen nicht, sie glauben an Goethe wie an ein Weltwunder. Dabei ist dieses Weltwunder nur ein philiströser philosophischer Schrebergärtner. [...] In nichts hat Goethe das Höchste geleistet, sagte ich, in allem nur das Mittelmaß zustande gebracht." ~ Thomas Bernhard
45. "El lenguaje es inútil cuando se trata de decir la verdad, de comunicar cosas, sólo permite al que escribe la aproximación, siempre, únicamente, una aproximación desesperada y, por ello, dudosa al objeto, el lenguaje sólo reproduce una autenticidad falsificada, una deformación espantosa, por mucho que el que escribe se esfuerce, las palabras lo aplastan todo contra el suelo y lo dislocan todo y convierten la verdad total en mentira sobre el papel." ~ Thomas Bernhard
46. "A body needs at leastthree points of support,not in a straight line,to fix its position,so Roithamer had written." ~ Thomas Bernhard
47. "Die beste Methode, sich von einem Schriftstellerwerk zu befreien, das einen gleich in was für einer Hinsicht nicht mehr in Ruhe läßt, sei es, weil man es am höchsten schätzt, sei es, daß man es haßt, ist, seinen Erzeuger kennenzulernen. Wir gehen zum Erzeuger eines literarischen Werkes und sind es los, habe ich zu Gambetti gesagt." ~ Thomas Bernhard
48. "Nothing but disaster follows from applause." ~ Thomas Bernhard
49. "We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death." ~ Thomas Bernhard
50. "You've always lived a life of pretense, not a real life-- a simulated existence, not a genuine existence. Everything about you, everything you are, has always been pretense, never genuine, never real." ~ Thomas Bernhard
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Today's Quote

From discord, find Harmony."
Author: Albert Einstein

What Did Thomas Bernhard Talk About?

Ten
Hen
End
Sin
Con
Wit
Thin
Era
Per
Die
Ways
Use
Ally
Act
Son
Los
Ear
Thou
Side
Cause
Tan
Though
King
Possible
Self
Hey
Ought
Able
Fun
Lie
Exist
Tell
Here
Tie
Pen
Consider
Late
Complete
Ours
Ring
Sing
Sit
Call
Bee
Total
Often
Inside
Lit
Destroy
Hand

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