Phantastes Quotes
"I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the return of consciousness."
"The trees seemed all to have an expression of conscious mystery, as if they said to themselves, 'We could, an' if we would.'"
"Great boughs crossed my path; great roots based the tree-columns, and mightily clasped the earth, strong to lift and strong to uphold."
"I felt as if I could fall down and kiss her. I forgot I was in Fairy Land."
"The birds were singing; but not for me. All the creatures spoke a language of their own, with which I had nothing to do."
"An unspeakable joy arose in my heart at beholding an abode of human beings once more."
"Earth drew me towards her bosom; I felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be."
"I was brought into far more complete relationship with the things around me."
"The owls' monotonous music issued from all unexpected quarters in the half-darkness around me."
"I saw before me with sufficient plainness—though at the same time with considerable indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself—a block of pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing woman."
"In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless sleep."
"A white lady has been flitting about the house all night."
"For those who enter Fairy Land, there is no way of going back. They must go on, and go through it."
"A gush of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the tide of a great sea."
"The best way to manage some kinds of painful thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst."
"Man is but a passing flame, moving unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night."
"O Lady! we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does nature live."
"A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth, Of all sweet sounds the life and element!"
"From Eden’s bowers the full-fed rivers flow, To guide the outcasts to the land of woe."
"Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster domes, and silver spires."
"Blow, Time—blow, winter’s Wind! Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out, And Spring the frost behind."
"The sun and moon alone make a glitter on the surface."
"The air was full of thunder. A sense of luxurious depression filled the brain."
"Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the mirror there."
"It was thy longing desire to see me, that beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield."
"I love thee as—nay, I know not what—for since I have loved thee, there is nothing else."
"Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the mirror."
"Ah! he loves me not; he loves me not even as I love him."
"I am but a slave, while that mirror exists."
"But all sounds fly in as boldly, groan and song, and kiss and cry."
"Heart, the queen, with secret hoping, sendeth out her waiting pair."
"Passing forms, the highest Human faints away to the Divine."
"Better to sit at the waters’ birth, than a sea of waves to win."
"The face is very strange and white: it is Earth’s only spot that feebly flickers back the light the living seëth not."