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1 " If we have lagged behind, dear brother, let us not be ashamed of it! So much is thrown away and lost on the road of the so called "times", that it is all right if there is someone to pick it up. I always fancy that the day will come when people will suddenly discover that they have lost what is behind them, and have nothing to gain from what is in front of them. That a moment may arise in their lives when they put the headlines and best-sellers aside and remember the verse of a hymn which they learned as children. That they will switch off the wireless for a while, and embrace the vast silence which ensues. "
― Ernst Wiechert , Missa sine nomine
2 " One need not have the same faith, but it was beautiful to look at somebody who had it, somebody who needed no staff, no philosophy, but who could see a little light in the darkness. For whom there were no limits between the underworld and the heavenly world, who was included in the vast circle and who could say everywhere and at each moment, “Here I am, oh Lord! "
3 " Only pious people believe that hell is in a world beyond. "
4 " He did not long for any other work, for instance that of “reconstruction,” of which the newspapers wrote so much. He had already experienced after the First World War how the flood of words poured down over the ruins, and how in a disastrous way people forgot that the reconstruction of their own small lives was the most urgent and most important work laid before their hands. And so, out of the thousand-fold multiplicity of the small, unreconstructed lives, the disaster had arisen which had devastated the world – and the hearts of the world. "
5 " Winter is the time for the lonely – both among men and among wolves – and for those who live on the borderline. It covers the life of the solid ground and reveals the life to which we must lift our eyes. It is not the time of animals, nor of flowers, but the time of the stars. Snow does not grow up from the earth, it falls from the stars. It is cold and pure like the stars themselves.There can be no hiding of tracks in winter, neither by man nor by wolf. Whoever walks over the snow must answer for it. Snow does not spring up again as trampled grass does. In the landscape a man towers as high as the pillar of fire in the wilderness. He who marks out the first track through the waste of snow must have courage. He who can face this winter desert must know inner harmony.The only live thing in winter is fire. It rules evening and night. Whoever sits before it must have dismissed the specters that live in the heart or they will stare at him out of each flame. He must have forgotten the cries of the past or he will hear them in the low hum that each fire makes. A man must have gained his white hair in peace to be able to sit quietly by the fire, his hands clasped around his knees and the shadows of familiar objects about him. "
6 " He who relies only on the intellect must walk with crutches, even though they be set with precious stones, and at the first breath of fate will break like matchsticks. "
7 " Perhaps it is still so today, and I believe it is so. But my eyes see it in a different way, Herr Baron, do you understand? My eyes are full of faith now, and he who is full of faith is not afraid. Our Heavenly Father can send the Man in Black to you, for he can send everything, but the Man in Black does not exist for his own sake, do you understand? Our Heavenly Father holds him on a thin thread and pulls him back, when it is enough. "
8 " If God crucifies,” he said gently, “he must take into his hand the one who is crucified. He does not stretch out his hand in vain, sir. He does not trifle, not he. "
9 " But where was the victory of the heart in this world? Thus Amadeus was not concerned with whether he did anything or nothing. His only concern was whether he could change himself or become changed. ... Not that he could change from a wolf into a lamb, but he would like to be a master over wolves and lambs – not a master through force, but through the realization that wolves and lambs both belong in the great circle of creation, and that maturity does not mean the hatred of the one and the love of the other. He was concerned to bring it about that evil should, as it were, emigrate from the world, because it has become alien to the world, and it is no longer necessary to fight for a lamb. "
10 " He put the spade over his shoulder and looked around him once more. “There is the evening that we have been looking for,” he said, smiling. “As quiet as God’s word before churches existed. "
11 " The parson was the only one to whom he spoke about the fact that he had shifted the barrel of his revolver before he touched the trigger. Wittkopp saw no riddle in it. “It is always present within us and looks on,” he said. “Mostly in silence and without a movement. But then comes a moment when it lifts its hand and touches our hand. We scarcely notice it, but it suffices that we say a different word from what we intended to say, that we walk a different way from the one we intended to go. Those are the great decisions of our lives, which, we imagine, are so magnificently dependent on our so-called free will. "
12 " He was afraid for many reasons, his heart was afraid, and reason could not give a name to it. ...he wanted nothing but to hide himself like an animal in a thicket. He had been branded and he had not yet got so far that he could transform the mark. He was afraid because these men were his brothers and he felt that he loved them. He had believed that love was dead in his heart, and now he realized that this was not true. "
13 " Men always demand something and always stretch out their hands toward the body or toward the heart. But grass and birds did not demand anything from him. They remained in their world. He could walk through them as through water. The water closed behind him and no track was left. And thus without leaving a trace he wished to walk over the earth from now on. "
