Harry Mulisch Quotes & Sayings

Even extraordinary circumstances could seem perfectly natural, simply because they were as they were; and in that case the awareness of their extraordinariness only dawned when others found them extraordinary. — Harry Mulisch

Why should "Honor thy father and thy mother" be a commandment, and "Honor thy child" not? — Harry Mulisch

In his Dialogue "Timaeus" Plato had a demiurge to create the globe-shaped world according to musical laws, including the human soul. Fifteen hundred years later, that still found an echo in the Renaissance. And in those days the architects realized that the musical harmonies had spatial expressions
namely, the relationships of the length of strings, and spatial relationships were precisely their only concerns. Because both the world and the body and soul were composed according to musical harmonies by the demiurge architect, both the macrocosm and the microcosm, they must therefore be guided in their own architectural designs by the laws of music. — Harry Mulisch

His father in law, who was as old as the century, had just retired and was living in a country house in Gelderland. He would be coming by car. Saskia called and suggested that he pick them up--then they could get coffee together first. A typical country dweller, he replied that he wouldn't be caught dead in Amsterdam; what did they think, that he wanted to be attacked by a gang of hippie Provos? He laughed as he said it, but he didn't come, though God knows he'd faced worse dangers in his life. — Harry Mulisch

If you find life absurd, shouldn't you find death precisely meaningful? — Harry Mulisch

Besides, whoever keeps the future in front of him and the past at his back is doing something else that's hard to imagine. For the image implies that events somehow already exist in the future, reach the present at a determined moment, and finally come to rest in the past. But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute. Therefore such a person has his face toward the void, whereas it is the past behind him that is visible, stored in the memory. — Harry Mulisch

The oldest thing of all is the present, because there's never been anything else but present. No one has ever lived in the past, and no one lives in the future, either. — Harry Mulisch

That question is too good to spoil with an answer. — Harry Mulisch

We underestimated human potential, both the strength of man's intellect and the weakness of his flesh, and therefore his receptivity to satanic inspiration
but ultimately he is our creature, and so what we've really underestimated is our own creativity. What we made has turned out to be more than what we thought we had made. So ultimately in our failure there is a compliment to us: our creativity is greater than ourselves! — Harry Mulisch

I had already taken a step toward their house, but then Father said, 'No, not there. They're hiding Jews.'"
Christ!" exclaimed Anton, slapping his forehead. — Harry Mulisch

Whenever something serious happens, you're supposed to count yourself lucky and be happy. — Harry Mulisch

Boundaries have to be continuously sealed off, but it's a hopeless job, for everything touches everything else in this world. A beginning never disappears, not even with an ending. — Harry Mulisch

If written in the three-letter words of the four-letter alphabet,a human being is determined by a genetic narrative long enough to fill the equivalent of 500 Bibles.In the meantime human beings have discovered this for themselves. That's right. They have uncovered our profoundest concept
namely, that life is ultimately reading. They themselves are the Book of Books. — Harry Mulisch

Perhaps, he thought, true pure love, like all flowers, flourished best with its roots in muck and mud. Perhaps that was a law of life that held everything together. — Harry Mulisch

When we heard those shots and he saw Ploeg lying in front of the house, what he said was, 'My God, the lizards!'
With wide-eyed disbelief Anton looked out over her head. — Harry Mulisch

Reality wasn't a syllogism like "Socrates is a man - all men are mortal - hence Socrates is mortal," but more like "Helga is a human being - all telephone booths have been vandalized - hence Helga must die." Or like: "Hitler is a human being - all Jews are animals - hence all Jews must die. — Harry Mulisch

You could chat with anyone; being silent together without it becoming embarrassing was a lot rarer. — Harry Mulisch

Anton had the feeling that by doing something which was within his power but which he could not quite think of, he could undo everything and return to the way they had been before, sitting around the table playing a game. It was as if he had forgotten a name remebered a hundred times before and now on the tip of his tongue, but the harder he tried to recall it, the more elusive it became. — Harry Mulisch

A man who has never been hungry may possess a more refined palate, but he has no idea what it means to eat. — Harry Mulisch

But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute. — Harry Mulisch

People returning from a journey carry the distances they have traveled with them like outspread wings - until they put the key in their front door. Then the wings fold up, and they are home again, as though in the center of an impassable steel ring on the horizon. The moment they close the door behind them, they can no longer imagine they have ever been away. — Harry Mulisch

I never understood how anyone could feel small compared with the universe. After all, man knows how overwhelmingly large it is, and a few others things besides, and that means he is not small. The fact that man has discovered all this precisely proves his greatness. — Harry Mulisch

He understood very well that it was just because of this intimacy that their marriage had not survived. — Harry Mulisch

All human beings were of course unique, and they only discovered that when someone else fell in love with them or when no one ever fell in love with them. — Harry Mulisch

All cows were like other cows, all tigers like all other tigers - What on earth happened to human beings? — Harry Mulisch

Only when she was alone did she have the sense that she really existed; other people might be frightened precisely because of that sense, but she was frightened of other people because they stole it from her. — Harry Mulisch

Using someone's name during a conversation was like a casual caress, like stroking their hair. — Harry Mulisch

Hate is the darkness, that's no good. And yet we've got to hate Fascists, and that's considered perfectly all right. How is that possible? It's because we hate them in the name of the light, I guess, whereas they hate only in the name of darkness. We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs.
But that's why it's more difficult for us. For them everything is very simple, but for us it's more complicated. We've got to become a little bit like them in order to fight them so we become a little bit unlike ourselves. But they don't have that problem; they can do away with us without any qualms. We first have to do away with something inside ourselves before we can do away with them. Not them; they can simply remain themselves, that's why they're so strong. But they'll lose in the end, because they have no light in them. The only thing is, we mustn't become too much like them, mustn't destroy ourselves altogether, otherwise they'll have won in the end ... — Harry Mulisch

He and Onno had once come to the conclusion that you had to decide for yourself whether after your death you wanted to return to your father, then you must go into fire, because that was spirit, but your mother was of course the earth, the body. — Harry Mulisch

I'm afraid love is just a word. — Harry Mulisch

Perhaps you knew for sure when you loved someone, but then she'd never loved anyone yet, and perhaps she would have to accept that she never would. — Harry Mulisch

The world was a soup and thought was generally a fork: it seldom resulted in a good meal. — Harry Mulisch

That's politics, power: it's all verbal, a continuous blizzard of words. But it's not just speaking, it's making statements. It's action; it's doing something without doing anything. — Harry Mulisch