50
" If he were alive today, Plato—to take him as an example, because along with a dozen others he is regarded as the greatest thinker who ever lived—would certainly be ecstatic about a news industry capable of creating, exchanging, refining a new idea every day; where information keeps pouring in from the ends of the earth with a speediness he never knew in his own lifetime, while a staff of demiurges is on hand to check it all out instantaneously for its content of reason and reality. He would have supposed a newspaper office to be that topos uranios, that heavenly realm of ideas, which he has described so impressively that to this day all the better class of people are still idealists when talking to their children or employees. And of course if Plato were to walk suddenly into a news editor’s office today and prove himself to be indeed that great author who died over two thousand years ago he would be a tremendous sensation and would instantly be showered with the most lucrative offers. If he were then capable of writing a volume of philosophical travel pieces in three weeks, and a few thousand of his well-known short stories, perhaps even turn one or the other of his older works into film, he could undoubtedly do very well for himself for a considerable period of time. The moment his return had ceased to be news, however, and Mr. Plato tried to put into practice one of his well-known ideas, which had never quite come into their own, the editor in chief would ask him to submit only a nice little column on the subject now and then for the Life and Leisure section (but in the easiest and most lively style possible, not heavy: remember the readers), and the features editor would add that he was sorry, but he could use such a contribution only once a month or so, because there were so many other good writers to be considered. And both of these gentlemen would end up feeling that they had done quite a lot for a man who might indeed be the Nestor of European publicists but still was a bit outdated, and certainly not in a class for current newsworthiness with a man like, for instance, Paul Arnheim. "
― Robert Musil , The Man Without Qualities
55
" In the right circumstances, a man can help himself by writing a book about his point, or a pamphlet, or at least a letter to the editor, thereby putting his protest on the historical record, which is marvelously comforting even if nobody reads it. Usually, however, it can be counted on to attract the attention of a few readers who assure the author that he is a new Copernicus, whereupon they introduce themselves as unrecognized Newtons. This custom of picking points out of each other's fur is widespread and a great comfort, but it is without lasting effect because the participants soon fall to quarreling and find themselves isolated again. "
― Robert Musil , The Man Without Qualities
56
" Ulrich lesse da qualche parte, primo inaspettato alito di un’imminente estate, l’espressione «il geniale cavallo da corsa».
Questo è certamente un segno dei tempi, giacché non sono passati ancora molti anni da quando l’appellativo di ammirevole spirito virile era riservato a un essere il cui coraggio fosse coraggio morale, la cui forza la forza di una convinzione, la cui fermezza quella del cuore e della virtù; un essere che giudicasse la velocità una ragazzata, la finzione qualcosa di illecito, la volubilità e l’entusiasmo atteggiamenti assolutamente contrari alla dignità. Ma ormai questo essere non esiste più: lo si ritrova soltanto fra il corpo insegnante dei ginnasi e in dichiarazioni scritte di vario genere. È diventato un fantasma ideologico, e la vita ha dovuto cercarsi un nuovo modello di virilità.
un cavallo e un campione di pugilato sono per certi versi addirittura superiori a una grande intelligenza, nel senso che le loro prestazioni e il loro valore possono essere misurati con incontestabile precisione, ed è veramente il migliore tra loro che viene riconosciuto come tale; in questo modo lo sport e l’oggettività sono meritatamente arrivati a imporsi sugli antiquati concetti di genio e di grandezza umana. "
― Robert Musil , The Man Without Qualities
60
" However understandable and self-contained everything seems, that is accompanied by an obscure feeling that it is only half the story. Something is not quite in balance, and a person presses forward, like a tightrope walker, in order not to sway and fall. And as he presses on through life and leaves lived life behind, the life ahead and the life already lived form a wall, and his path in the end resembles the path of a woodworm: no matter how it corkscrews forward or even backward, it always leaves an empty space behind the fullness of everything, this half that is always missing even when everything is a whole, this is what eventually makes one perceive what one calls the soul. "
― Robert Musil , The Man Without Qualities
