The Golden Pot and Other Tales Quotes

“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, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“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, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“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, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“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, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Leuwenhoek received Peregrinus with a repulsively unctuous display of friendship and with the servile compliments which convey an enforced and reluctant acknowledgement of superiority.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“If you wonder at something because it has not yet happened to you, or because you think you cannot perceive the connection of cause and effect, that simply shows that your powers of perception are limited by the deficiencies of your vision. Whether your vision is naturally deficient, or sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, I cannot say.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“It is an old-established custom for the hero of a story, when overcome by violent emotion, to run out into the forest, or at least to some solitary glade. This custom is a good one, because it prevails in real life. Mr Peregrinus Tyss therefore had no altenative but to run in a straight line from his house on the Horsemarket until he had left the town behind him and reached a nearby glade.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Thinking, according to Knarrpanti, was in itself a dangerous undertaking, and all the more so when performed by dangerous individuals.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“…Swammerdamm drew a small telescope from his pocket, extended it to its full length, and assailed his enemy with a loud cry of: 'Draw, you scoundrel, if you have the courage!'
   Leuwenhoek promptly had a similar instrument in his hand, likewise extended it, and shouted: 'Come on, I'll fight you, and you'll soon feel my power!' The two put the telescopes to their eyes and fell upon each other furiously with sharp and murderous strokes, lengthening and shortening their weapons by pulling the extensions in and out. There were feints, parries, turns, in a word all the tricks of the fencer, and they seemed to grow ever more infuriated. If one of them was hit, he screamed, leapt into the air, and performed the most wonderful caprioles, and the most beautiful entrechats and pirouettes, like the best solo dancer in the Paris ballet, until the other focused the shortened telescope on him. If the same thing happened to the other, he behaved similarly. Thus they alternately displayed the boldest leaps, the wildest gestures, the most furious outcry; the sweat was dripping from their foreheads, their bloodshot eyes were protruding from their heads, and since no cause for their St Vitus dance was visible, save that they looked through the telescopes in turn, one was obliged to conclude that they were lunatics escaped from the madhouse. For the rest, the duel was a most pleasing sight.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“However, you cannot judge my learning by your standards, since you are unacquainted with the wondrous world which I and my people inhabit. How astonished you would be if your eyes could be opened to perceive this world; you would think it a strange and incomprehensible realm of magic. For that very reason you may not be surprised if everything originating from that world appears to you like a bewildering fairy-tale dreamt up by an idle brain. Don't let that put you off, however, but take my word for it.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Pepusch had a melancholy and irritable temperament; in every pleasure he was too conscious of the bitter aftertaste which comes, indeed, from the black Stygian brook that runs through the whole of our life. This made him grim, introverted, and often unjust to people around him. You may imagine, therefore, that Pepusch was not disposed to go running after pretty girls.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“A scholarly acquaintance in Samarkand had sent my colleague the finest and rarest tulips, as perfectly fresh as though they had just been cut from the stem. He was principally concerned with the microscopic study of their internal organs, especially of the pollen. He therefore dissected a beautiful lilac and yellow tulip, and discovered inside the calyx a tiny grain of alien matter which caught his attention in a singular fashion. How great was his astonishment when, on applying the magnifying glass, he clearly perceived that the tiny grain was none other than Princess Gamaheh, who was reposing on the pollen of the tulip's calyx and seemed to be sleeping calmly and peacefully.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Many years had passed, and the two Magi had quarrelled, for learned men are more ready to quarrel, the more learned they are.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Once upon a time—what author nowadays dare begin his tale in such a way? 'Old-fashioned! Boring!' cries the kind or rather unkind reader...”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“It is certainly true enough that Mr. Peregrinus had many strange qualities which people found hard to accept.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“Look, cousin, there is a commotion starting over there beside the church. Two vegetable-women have probably got into a violent dispute over the vexed question of meum and tuum [mine and yours], and, with their arms akimbo, seem to be treating each other to some choice expressions. The crowd is flocking to them. A dense circle surrounds the two quarrelling women. Their voices are growing louder and shriller by the minute. They are waving their fists more and more fiercly. They are approaching each other more and more closely. We shall have fisticuffs any moment.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales

“You know, dear cousin, that there are some very strangely built people: at the first glance one recognizes them as deformed, and yet on closer inspection one cannot say where the deformity lies.”
― E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Golden Pot and Other Tales