“People have always told tales. Long before humanity learned to write and gradually became literate, everybody told tales to everybody else and everybody listened to everybody else's tales. Before long it became clear that some of the still illiterate storytellers told more and better tales than others, that is, they could make more people believe their lies.” PeopleWritingBelieveLongStillsLyingHumanityClearTalesStorytellerIlliterate Author:Gunter Grass
“What does a river like the Vistula carry away with it? Everything that goes to pieces: wood, glass, pencils, pacts ... chairs, bones, and sunsets too. What had long been forgotten rose to memory, floating on its back or stomach, with the help of the Vistula.” LongDoeHelpingMemoriesPiecesRiversRoseForgottenGlassesWoodsBonesSunsetChairsStomachFloatingPencilsPact Author:Gunter Grass
“We dance for the pure joy of it. In the kitchen to the record player. Because we've got it in us. All over ... it's not just in the legs. It comes from inside and runs all through you. In waves. From down below to up above. All the way to the scalp.” WayRunningJoyRecordsPlayerPureWaveLegsKitchenOver ItPure JoyRecord Players Author:Gunter Grass
“What can you say about a guy who lets himself be saddled with a baby when he's thirty-five and losing his hair? Love? Forget about that till you're past seventy, and by then the parts will have stopped working anyway.” PastGuyForgetFiveHairBabyLosingThirtySeventies Author:Gunter Grass
“Cemeteries have always had a lure for me. They are well kept, free from ambiguity, logical, virile, and alive. In cemeteries you can summon up courage and arrive at decisions, in cemeteries life takes on distinct contours -- I am not referring to the borders of the graves -- and if you will, a meaning.” IfsWellsDecisionAliveGravesBordersLogicalAmbiguityCemeteryReferringLure Author:Gunter Grass
“Even if surrounded with explanations, Auschwitz can never be grasped.” IfsExplanationAuschwitz Author:Gunter Grass
“The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: "What is the First Principle?" Bodhidharma said, "I don't know." "I don't know" is the First Principle.” KnowsFirstsSaidPrinciplesSubjectsTruth IsHighestScriptureChineseEmperor Author:Shunryu Suzuki
“Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.” IfsWantUseDifficultConquer Author:Shunryu Suzuki
“Real Freedom is to not feel limited when wearing this Zen robe, this troublesome formal robe. Similarly, in our busy life we should wear this civilization without being bothered by it, without ignoring it, without being caught by it.” FeelsShouldRealCivilizationBusyCaughtFormalBotheredRobesTroublesomeBusy LifeReal Freedom Author:Shunryu Suzuki
“For some time I watch the coming of the night? Above is the glistening galaxy of childhood, now hidden in the Western world by air pollution and the glare of artificial light; for my children's children, the power, peace and healing of the night will be obliterated.” WorldChildrenLightNightHealingWatchesAirChildhoodWesternMy ChildrenArtificialPollutionGalaxyWestern WorldGlareAir PollutionArtificial Light Author:Peter Matthiessen