Jan-Philipp Sendker Quotes & Sayings

She saw that he knew what loneliness was, that he understood why it might be raining inside a person even when the sun shone, that sadness needed no immediate cause. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

I found this butterfly dead on our porch a few weeks ago. I have pressed it. It's one of those whose wing beats you loved best. You once said it reminded you of my heartbeat. None sounded sweeter. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We project our own capacities - for good as well as evil - onto the other person. Then we acknowledge as love primarily those things that correspond to our own image thereof. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know ceases to exist. A moment that transform us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

How can a person be moved to tears by something she can neither see, understand, nor hold on to, a mere sound that vanishes almost the moment it comes into being? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Laughter has many meanings here. We laugh when something is unpleasant. When we are afraid. When we are angry." "Is it a kind of — Jan-Philipp Sendker

I told him I had no use for introspection and navel-gazing. I was probably one of the few New Yorkers who had never been to a therapist. I was not the type to go looking for the causes of all my problems in my childhood, and I had no respect for those who did. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Nothing in this world had a fixed place. Everything was in motion. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

It's love. Love makes us beautiful. Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is loved unconditionally and who, at the same time, is ugly? There's no need to ponder the question. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We are not condemned to remain who we are. No one can help us do this but ourselves. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is loved unconditionally and who, at the same time, is ugly? There's no need to ponder the question. There is no such person. He — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Because we see only what we already know. We project our own capacities - for good as well as evil - onto the other person. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Who are you? What's your name?"
"Mi Mi."
"Do you hear that thumping noise?"
"No."
"It must be here somewhere." Tin Win knelt down. Now it was nearly next to his ear. "I hear it more and more distinctly. A soft pulsing. You really don't hear it?"
"No."
"Close your eyes."
Mi Mi closed her eyes. "Nothing," she said, and laughed. Tin Win leaned over and felt her breath on his face. "I think it's coming from you." He crept closer to her and held his head just in front of her chest.
There it was. Her heartbeat. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We often discover only many years later whether life and the stars were smiling upon us or not. Life can take the most surprising turns. What — Jan-Philipp Sendker

To forgive, one must love and be loved. Only those who forgive can be free. Whoever forgives is a prisoner no more. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Why do we so often put off the things that matter most to us? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Person's greatest treasure is the wisdom in his own heart. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We wish to be loved as we ourselves would love. Any other way makes as uncomfortable. We respond with doubt and suspicion. We misinterpret the signs. We do not understand the language. We accuse. We assert that the other person does not love us. But perhaps he merely loves us in some idiosyncratic way that we fail to recognize. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Were there people who simply did not belong together? Who loved each other, but who were nevertheless happier when they were apart? Certainly — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Yet she also longed for moments when she might be weak, when she need not prove anything to anyone. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

It is our own flaws that we are least ready to forgive in others. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Yadana marveled at her daughter. Mi Mi knew that. She was proud of the strength and grace with which her Little Snail bore her handicap. And Mi Mi wanted to be strong, if sometimes only not to disappoint her mother. Yet she also longed for moments when she might be weak, when she need not prove anything to anyone. Not to her parents. Not to her brothers. Not to herself. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

There are moments that we simply cannot endure. They transform us into someone else. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

HOW THIN IS the wall between us and madness? No one knows what it is made — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The essence of a thing is invisible to the eye, U May said. Learn to perceive the essence of a thing. Eyes are more likely to hinder you in that regard. They distract us. We love to be dazzled. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

By how many people must we be loved in order to be happy? Two? Five? Ten? Or maybe only one? The one who gives us sight. Who takes away fear. Who breathes meaning into our existence. There — Jan-Philipp Sendker

She hoped Tin Win would learn what she had learned over the years: that there were wounds time does not heal, though it can reduce them to manageable size. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The fear of death is presumably a survival instinct, Tin Win later thought. It must be an essential part of us, of every living creature. At the same time, we must transcend it to take our leave in peace. He found this an irresolvable contradiction. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

How many times must we be loved in order to be happy? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Fear blinds and deafens. Rage blinds and deafens. So, too, envy and suspicion. There was only one force stronger than fear. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

[He taught her] that life is interwoven with suffering. That in every life, without exception, illnesses are unavoidable. That we will age, and that we cannot elude death. These are the laws and conditions of human existence. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

In a sooty kettle. In one corner, orange-colored sodas were stacked in wooden crates. I had never been in such a wretched hovel. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

She hoped that Tin Win would learn what she had learned over the years: that there are wounds time does not heal, though it can reduce them to a manageable size. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The world was full of signs. One needed only to know how to see and interpret them. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

THERE ARE MEMORIES we cannot escape. We take them with us wherever we go, however far, like it or not. They pursue us or accompany us in good times and in bad. We smell their scents. We hear their sounds. We delight in them or dread them. By day and by night. My — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Heartbeat to the next. The moment when a lover confesses — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Images can fade. Sounds and smells disappear from our memory. But our heart forgets nothing. A child's soul knows everything. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The true essence of things is invisible to the eyes ... Our sensory organs love to lead us astray, and eyes are the most deceptive of all. We rely too heavily on them. We believe that we see the world around us, and yet it is only the surface that we perceive. We must learn to divine the true nature of things, their substance, and the eyes are rather a hindrance than a help in that regard. They distract us. We love to be dazzled. A person who relies too heavily on his eyes neglects his other senses
and I mean more than his hearing or sense of smell. I'm talking about the organ within us for which we have no name. Let us call it the compass of the heart. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

I am not without you,
that you are with me from the moment I wake until the moment I fall asleep,
that it's you when the wind caresses me,
that it's your voice I hear in the silence,
you whom I see when I close my eyes,
you who make me laugh and sing when I know no one else is around. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Only a few days earlier he had explained to her that he did not merely read books but traveled with them, that they took him to other countries and unfamiliar continents, and that with their help he was always getting to know new people, many of whom even became his friends. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

I have often wondered what was the source of her beauty, her radiance. It's not the size of one's nose, the color of one's skin, the shape of one's lips or eyes that make one beautiful or ugly. So what is it? Can you, as a woman, tell me?
I shook my head.
I will tell you: It's love. Love makes us beautiful. Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is loved unconditionally and who, at the same time, is ugly? There's no need to ponder the question. There is no such person. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

According to her we are each our own greatest mystery, and our life's work is to solve ourselves. None of us ever succeeds, she says, but it is our duty to follow the trail. Regardless of how long it is or where it might — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Besides, I have no point of comparison," he declared, his eyes still closed. "That is the secret of a happy life. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Not all truths are explicable, Julia," he said. "And not all explicable things are true. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Every life contains the seed of death, he had explained to Tin Win repeatedly in those first years of their friendship. Death, like birth, was a part of life that no one could escape. It was senseless to resist it. Far better to accept it as natural than to fear it. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

THERE must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Where does love end and madness begin, — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We believe that we see the world around us, and yet it is only the surface that we perceive. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The master is mistaken: to live is to love. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

He expected nothing more from life. Not because he was disappointed or embittered. He expected nothing because there was nothing of importance that he had not already experienced. He possessed all the happiness that a person could find. He loved and was loved. Unconditionally. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Can words sprout wings? Can they glide like butterflies through the air? Can they captivate us, carry us off into another world? Can they open the last secret chambers of our souls? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

The soul of a people does not change overnight. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Eyes and ears are not the problem ... It is rage that blinds and deafens us. Or fear. Envy, mistrust. The world contracts, gets all out of joint when you are angry or afraid. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

My bees cannot sting." "You mean they haven't stung anyone yet." "Is there a difference?" "What do you do with the honey?" "What honey?" "From the bees." U Ba looked at me. "I wouldn't touch it. It belongs to the bees. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Themes so vast that only composers could even approach them. If at all. All other artists must practice humility before them. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Anyone who has been the victim of violence carries that violence inside himself. Anyone — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Is it true that we can count the moments in which something really happens in our lives? Do we notice it right away, or only in hindsight? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Hearts sounded different from person to person, betraying age or youth, joy, sorrow, fear, or courage, but that was all. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

She was mystified by people who were always hurrying things along. A time of waiting offered moments, minutes, sometimes even hours of peace, of rest, during which, as a rule, she was alone with herself. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

It's true I lost my eyesight many years ago. But that doesn't mean I'm blind. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Only once had she asked the question: Why? And she had known that there would never be an answer. Her feet were a whim of nature. It would have been silly to look for causes or to rebel. She would not bicker with fate. Still, it hurt. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

She had never witnessed such a symbiosis between two people, and there were moments when the sight of them made her wonder whether, in the end, a person maybe wasn't alone after all, whether in some cases, the smallest human unit was two rather than one. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

He seemed to think anyone was capable of anything, or at least he wouldn't exclude the possibility just because he thought he knew the person. And he insisted that this did not represent the worldview of an embittered pessimist. On the contrary, he had said. It would be much worse to expect good from other people, only to be disappointed when they didn't measure up to our high expectations. That would lead to resentment and contempt for humanity. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Became clear that there were no high-stakes life-insurance — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Loneliness is the most severe punishment. We are not built to handle it. I — Jan-Philipp Sendker

When we get over something, we move on, we put it behind us. Do we leave the dead behind or do we take them with us? I think we take them with us. They accompany us. They remain with us, if in another form. We have to learn to live with them and their deaths. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

In the hell of the well-intentioned. That was how he referred to the charity balls my mother helped organize. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

To live means to suffer. Nothing is permanent. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

- Find out who you were. Why — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Sometimes we must search afar to find what's close at hand. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Death is not the end of life, but a stage thereof. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

How can anyone truthfully claim to love someone when they're not prepared to share everything with that person, including their past? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

There was the world of the sick and dying and the world of the hale. The healthy and hale did not want to know anything about the sick and dying. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

What do we know about our parents, and what do they know about us? And if we don't even know the individuals who have accompanied us since birth - we not them and they not us - then what do we know about anyone at all?Don't I have to imagine, from that perspective, that anyone is capable of anything, even the most heinous crime? On what or whom, on which truths, can one ultimately depend? Are there individuals I can trust unconditionally? Can there ever be such a person? — Jan-Philipp Sendker

I'm not sure I would put it that way. When we get over something, we move on, we put it behind us. Do we leave the dead behind or do we take them with us? I think we take them with us. They accompany us. They remain with us, if in another form. We have to learn to live with them and their deaths ...
I think of them every day, I wonder what they would say at a given moment. I ask them for advice, even today, at my age, when it will soon be time to be thinking of my own death ... — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Anyone who has been betrayed carries that betrayal inside himself. How — Jan-Philipp Sendker

There is nothing, for good or for evil, of which a person is incapable. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Tin Win sat at an open window, his head buried in his hands. She called his name, but he did not react. With a shrill whistle blast, the engine started to move. Su Kyi walked along beside the window. The train picked up speed. The wheezing grew louder and stronger. She started to run. Stumbled. Bowled into a man, jumped over a basket of fruit. Then the platform came to an end. The two rear lights shone like tiger's eyes in the night. Slowly they vanished behind a gentle curve. When Su Kyi turned around the platform was empty. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Life is a gift full of riddles in which suffering and happiness are inextricably intertwined. Any attempt to have one without the other was simply bound to fail. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Of course I am not referring to those outburts of passions that drive us to do and say things we will later regret, that delude us into thinking we cannot life without a certain person, that set us quivering with anxiety at the mere possibility we might ever lose that person-a feeling that impoverishes rather than enriches us because we long to possess what we cannot, to hold on what we cannot.
No. I speak of a love that brings sight to the blind. Of a love stronger than fear. I speak of a love that breathes meaning into life, that defies the natural laws of deterioration, that causes us to flourish, that knows no bounds. I speak of the triumph of the human spirit over selfishness and death. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

We are responsible not only for what we do, but also for what we fail to do. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Life, U May told her, is a gift full of riddles in which suffering and happiness are inextricably intertwined. Any attempt to have one without the other was simply bound to fail. The monastery itself was surrounded — Jan-Philipp Sendker

What do violent individuals fear most? Violence? I should say not! By what do the cruel and selfish feel most threatened? All of them fear nothing as much as they fear love. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Then the animals began to sing. First the crocodiles.
But crocodiles can't sing, I objected at this point every evening.
Sure they can, answers my father very quietly. Crocodiles sing, if only you let them. You just have to be quiet to hear them. — Jan-Philipp Sendker

Every step we take leaves a trace. — Jan-Philipp Sendker