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ANNA KARENINA

Book by Leo Tolstoy · 6 quotes · Love, Anna Karenina, Life

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ANNA KARENINA Quotes

“He felt that if they had both not kept up appearances, but had spoken, as it is called, from the heart—that is to say, had said only just what they were thinking and feeling—they would simply have looked into each other's faces, and Konstantin could only have said, "You're dying, you're dying!" and Nikolay could only have answered, "I know I'm dying, but I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" And they could have said nothing more, if they had said only what was in their hearts. But life like that was impossible, and so Konstantin tried to do what he had been trying to do all his life, and never could learn to do, though, as far as he could observe, many people knew so well how to do it, and without it there was no living at all. He tried to say what he was not thinking, but he felt continually that it had a ring of falsehood, that his brother detected him in it, and was exasperated at it.”

“Death, the inevitable end of all, for the first time presented itself to him with irresistible force. And death, which was here in this loved brother, groaning half asleep and from habit calling without distinction on God and the devil, was not so remote as it had hitherto seemed to him. It was in himself too, he felt that. If not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow, in thirty years, wasn’t it all the same! And what was this inevitable death—he did not know, had never thought about it, and what was more, had not the power, had not the courage to think about it. “I work, I want to do something, but I had forgotten it must all end; I had forgotten—death.”

“Lewin sprach nur aus, was er in dieser letzten Zeit wirklich gedacht hat. Er sah überall nur den Tod oder spürte seine Nähe. Aber sein begonnenes Werk beschäftigte ihn deswegen nur um so mehr. Irgendwie musste man sein Leben fristen, bis der Tod kam. Alles schien ihm in Dunkel gehüllt, aber gerade dieses Dunkel ließ ihn empfinden, dass der einzige leitende Faden sein Werk war, und er klammerte sich mit seiner letzten Kraft an diesen Faden und hielt sich fest.”