Beneath The Wheel Quotes
"He could have exchanged his name and address with any of his neighbors, and nothing would have been different."
"Deep-seated distrust of any power or person superior to himself, and animosity toward anyone who was either extraordinary or more gifted, sensitive or intelligent than he."
"Only God knows where this boy got his serious and intelligent look and his elegant movements."
"Deep wrinkles, signs of troubled thinking, twitched on his forehead, and his thin, emaciated arms and hands hung at his side with the weary gracefulness reminiscent of a figure by Botticelli."
"He’s one of the extra-bright ones. Just look at him. He’s the veritable incarnation of intellect."
"The gentle, motherly hand of sleep soothed the tempest in his heart and smoothed the light wrinkles on his brow."
"Hans felt a bit queer whenever he was with Flaig. He respected him and his self-assured and admirable way of life, but everyone made so much fun of the Pietists that Hans had even joined in the laughter, though frequently against his own better judgment."
"The classroom teacher before beginning the day’s first lesson said to the other pupils: 'So, the examination in Stuttgart is about to begin and we want to wish Giebenrath the best of luck. Not that he needs it. He’s as smart as ten of you lazybones put together.'"
"Everything was as usual and yet more beautiful. By God, he had passed! And he’d come in second."
"Swimming slowly against the weak current, he sensed himself shedding the sweat and fear of the last days."
"Nothing expresses the heat of a midsummer day more emphatically than a few clouds that seem to stand still and white halfway between the blue and the earth, clouds so saturated with light you cannot bear to look at them for long."
"Greek, Latin, grammar, style, math and learning by rote, the whole torturous process of a long, restless and hectic year quietly sank away in the warmth of this sleepy hour."
"The most important new experience that you will have there is the introduction to the Greek of the New Testament. This will open up an entirely new world to you, rich in work and pleasure."
"In young beings there is something wild, ungovernable, uncultured which first has to be tamed. It is like a dangerous flame that has to be controlled or it will destroy."
"Natural man is unpredictable, opaque, dangerous, like a torrent cascading out of uncharted mountains. At the start, his soul is a jungle without paths or order."
"This magnificent monastery, hidden behind hills and woods, has long been reserved for the exclusive use of the students of the Protestant Theological Academy in order that their receptive young spirits will be surrounded by an atmosphere of beauty and peace."
"For Swabia supplies the world not only with a fair number of well-prepared theologians but is also graced with a traditional aptitude for philosophical speculation that on more than one occasion has produced noteworthy prophets, not to mention false prophets."
"Above the old pointed roofs, towers, bow windows, turret, battlements and gothic arcades there rose a pale half-moon and its light lodged in cornices, on window ledges, poured over gothic windows and romanesque gateways and trembled pale-golden in the generous bowl of the cloister’s fountain."
"For a brief time quarrels, anger, noise and laughter were invisible, like wood-nymphs who disappear briefly from a lake, leaving it tranquil and seemingly unpopulated."
"He was both embarrassed and overawed by the headmaster and the professors."
"At the last moment, just before the pallbearers picked up the coffin, the sorry little man stepped forward once more and touched the coffin lid with timid tenderness."
"He remained there, helplessly fighting his tears, standing in the large quiet room like a withered tree in the winter."
"Something inside him had changed. The boy had become an adolescent, and his soul seemed to have been transferred to another country, where it fluttered about anxiously, knowing no rest."
"His isolation, a consequence of his prolonged room-arrest, had wounded and embittered his sensitive spirit."
"His Monk Songs, which at first had struck only a melancholy note of isolation, gradually turned into a collection of bitter and hate-filled verses."
"The newly fashioned friendship caused considerable excitement in the monastery. The two friends were to experience some very unusual weeks together."
"Both of these precocious boys shyly, though unconsciously, tasted in their friendship the intimation of the delicate secrets of a first love affair."
"The more intimate and happier Hans became with his friend, the more alienated he became from school."
"The authorities go to infinite pains to nip the few profound or more valuable intellects in the bud."
"The struggle between rule and spirit repeats itself year after year from school to school."
"As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen."
"He had vanished, and his physical appearance and his flight gradually became history and finally turned into legend."
"He longed for only one thing at present—to rest, to sleep, to cry, to dream as much as he wanted, to be left in peace."
"In the same dream he saw a slim and handsome man alight from a boat, with tranquil, godlike eyes and peaceful hands, and he ran up to him."
"All in all, Hans’ condition showed little improvement despite the few days during which he felt better."
"He was no longer a vessel which could be stuffed with all sorts of things, no longer fertile ground for a variety of seeds; he was no longer worth their time and effort."
"In these desperate and forlorn straits, another ghost approached the sickly boy in the guise of a treacherous comforter that gradually became familiar and indispensable: the thought of death."
"Fate allowed him to enjoy his gloomy intentions. She watched him every day sipping a few drops of joy and zest from the cup of death."
"A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginnings and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life."
"He did not really know why he hadn’t hanged himself long ago."
"Every healthy person must have a goal in life and that life must have content; young Giebenrath had lost both."
"He felt the desire to sink down, to fall asleep, to die, and suffered agonies because his youth itself made this impossible, clinging to life with its quiet obstinacy."
"It was a good thing that the apprentice came back and relieved him at the press."
"With each step he felt like going down on his knees. The dark streets, the drowsy gables, the dimly lit red windows flowed past like a pale stage setting."
"He felt he would fall asleep that instant but he had no sooner lain down than his heart began to throb again and there was the irregular violent surging of his blood."
"It was a bright, sunny day. He walked up and down in the garden for a long time, trying to become fully awake and clear his mind which seemed enveloped by a thick drowsy fog."
"All he perceived was that these memories did not fit in with his thoughts of Emma and of the previous evening and that something had happened that could not be combined with his childhood happiness."
"Hans could think of no reason why that evening came back to him now, nor why its memory was so overpoweringly beautiful, nor why it made him feel so miserably sad."
"That’s a problem, all right ... because you’re not what I would call a muscle-man. The first day you’ll be standing at the smithy all day long swinging the forge-hammer, and a hammer like that is no soup ladle."
"He did it distractedly and sat undressed in the window for a long time until the fall night suddenly chilled him and drove him between the sheets."
"Around noon he went to look up August, who had just been made senior apprentice. He had filled out considerably and grown much taller since Hans saw him last."
"In the end, he was glad when the dreaded Friday arrived. With no time to spare in the morning, he donned his new blue outfit and cap and walked down Tanner Street, a little timidly, toward Schuler’s workshop."
"All nausea, shame and suffering had passed from him; the cold bluish autumn night looked down on the dark shape of his drifting body and the dark water played with his hands and hair and bloodless lips."