E.T.A. Hoffmann Quotes & Sayings

There are ... otherwise quite decent people who are so dull of nature that they believe that they must attribute the swift flight of fancy to some illness of the psyche, and thus it happens that this or that writer is said to create not other than while imbibing intoxicating drink or that his fantasies are the result of overexcited nerves and resulting fever. But who can fail to know that, while a state of psychical excitement caused by the one or other stimulant may indeed generate some lucky and brilliant ideas, it can never produce a well-founded, substantial work of art that requires the utmost presence of mind. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Mozart's music is the mysterious language of a distant spiritual kingdom, whose marvelous accents echo in our inner being and arouse a higher, intensive life. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It was obvious from their expressions that they believed the wellbeing of R.'s inhabitants was endangered by my youth. The visit was very enjoyable, but the horror of the previous night still clung to me. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, which turns round in an everlasting circle like the wheel of fortune. He who reaps praise today is overwhelmed with biting censure tomorrow; today we trample under foot the man who tomorrow will be raised far above us. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such magical mishaps. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It is true that writers often owe their most inspired thoughts, their most extraordinary phrases, to their generous typesetters, who assist their flights of fancy with so-called typographical errors. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

In all probability, the man who found the horoscope would also catch Nut and Nutcracker. They had to believe all the more strongly in the astrologer's new forecast since none of his predictions had ever come true. Sooner or later, his prognoses had to be right, given that the king, who could never be wrong, had made him his Grand Augur. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

So Marie couldn't talk to anyone about her adventures, but the idea of that wonderful fairyland lingered on. She thought she heard murmurs of sweet sound, she saw it all again the moment she let her mind dwell on it, and so it was that instead of playing as usual she could sit still, never moving but deep in her own thoughts, with the result that she was scolded for being a little dreamer. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

The foot of the heavenly ladder, which we have got to mount in order to reach the higher regions, has to be fixed firmly in every-day life, so that everybody may be able to climb up it along with us. When people then find that they have got climbed up higher and higher into a marvelous, magical world, they will feel that that realm, too, belongs to their ordinary, every-day life, and is, merely, the wonderful and most glorious part thereof. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Misty dreamers had not a chance with her; since, though she did not talk - talking would have been altogether repugnant to her silent nature. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Perhaps, too, you will then believe that nothing is more wonderful, nothing more fantastic than real life, and that all that a writer can do is to present it as "in a glass, darkly". — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It may be, after all," said the Student Anselmus to himself, "that the superfine stomachic liqueur, which I took somewhat freely in Monsieur Conradi's, might really be the cause of all these shocking phantasms, which tortured me so at Archivarius Lindhorst's door. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

[E]ven in gay, easygoing, and carefree minds there may exist a presentiment of dark powers within ourselves which are bent upon our own destruction. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Oh, where have you gone, you blissful dreams of future happiness — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It is only in the morning that one should marry, read unfavourable reviews, make one's will, beat one's servants, and so forth. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

In such a dreamy mood one may find one may well wound one's feet against sharp stones, forget to doff one's hat to distinguished persons, bid one's friends good morning in the middle of the night, and dash one's head against the first front door one comes to, because one had forgot to open it; in short, the spirit wears one's body like an ill-fitting garment that is everywhere too wide, too long, too uncomfortable. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

But if, like a bold painter, you had first sketched in a few audacious strokes the outline of the picture you had in your own soul, you would then easily have been able to deepen and intensify the colors one after the other, until the varied throng of living figures carried your friends away and they, like you, saw themselves in the midst of the scene that had proceeded out of your own soul. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Let me ask you outright, gentle reader, if there have not been hours, indeed whole days and weeks of your life, during which all your usual activities were painfully repugnant, and everything you believed in and valued seemed foolish and worthless? — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Know, then," said he, "that I myself am the destiny - the demon, as thou sayest, by whom I am persecuted and destroyed, that my conscience is loaded with guilt, nay, with the stain of a shameful, infamous, and mortal crime, — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear? Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions? — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Poor, ill-advised Roderich! What evil power did you conjure up to poison in its first youth the race you thought to have planted for eternity? — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

It is nearly always the most improbable things that really come to pass. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully? — E.T.A. Hoffmann

We believed in another world, but we admitted the feebleness of our senses. Then came 'enlightenment,' and made everything so very clear and enlightened, that we can see nothing for excess of light, and go banging our noses against the first tree we come to in the wood. We insist, now-a-days, on grasping the other world with stretched-out arms of flesh and bone. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

If there is a dark and hostile power, laying its treacherous toils
within us, by which it holds us fast and draws us along the path of
peril and destruction, which we should not otherwise have trod; if, I
say there is such a power, it must form itself inside us and out of
ourselves, indeed; it must become identical with ourselves. For it is
only in this condition that we can believe in it, and grant it the room
which it requires to accomplish its secret work. Now, if we have a
mind which is sufficiently firm, sufficiently strengthened by the joy
of life, always to recognize this strange enemy as such, and calmly to
follow the path of our own inclination and calling, then the dark
power will fail in its attempt to gain a form that shall be a reflection
of ourselves. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

She was not too tall, and of a voluptuous build, so that my eyes wandered amid many charms that hitherto had been strangers to them. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Boys should not play with weapons more dangerous than they understand. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

He was, however, obliged to leave the university, because Nathaniel's story had created a sensation, and it was universally considered a quite unpardonable trick to smuggle a wooden doll into respectful tea parties in place of a living person. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try. The circler circles in these circles. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

With the confidence and peace of mind native to true genius, I lay my life story before the world, so that the reader may learn how to educate himself to be a great tomcat, may recognize the full extent of my excellence, may love, value, honour and admire me- and worship me a little.
Should anyone be audacious enough to think of casting doubt on the sterling worth of this remarkable book, let him reflect that he is dealing with a tomcat possessed of intellect, understanding, and sharp claws. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

So true it is, that even the shortest step out of the immediate circle of one's best friends, is equal, in effect, to the remotest separation. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

None but a poet can understand a poet; none but a romantic spirit transported with poetry and consecrated in the Holy of Holies an comprehend what the ordained utters out of his inspiration. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orbit hems it in, the inexhaustible wealth of the total visible creation is outweighed by its riches! — E.T.A. Hoffmann

Human beings ought not to draw in their antennae at every ungentle touch, like supersensitive insects. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are likethin-skinned insects whose visible play of muscles seem to make them deformed, though in fact, everything soon turns to its normal shape again. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sky. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

I wished I could read in their shrivelled faces and watery eyes, I wished I could hear in the bad French which came half through their pinched lips and half through their pointed noses, how the old ladies had got at least on to good terms with the uncanny beings which haunted the castle. — E.T.A. Hoffmann

As the priest is characterized by his cassock, so the smoker by his pipe. The way in which he holds it, raises it to his lips, and knocks out the ashes, reveals his personality, habits, passions, and even his thoughts. — E.T.A. Hoffmann