"At first this morning, when I opened the window, my room was filled with the perfume of flowers growing in the modest front garden. The branches of cherry trees in bloom look into my window, and the wind occasionally strews my desk with their white petals."
"He is a poet in all his actions, and frequently in his utterings, although in all his life he never wrote two lines of verse. He has studied all the live strings of the human heart in the same way as one studies the veins of a dead body"
And how much humanity would have benefited from this type of poet! And yet some of the poets are fated to not share their gift, even with themselves consciously. In the end, does the poet benefit more or less when he lets his gift out? Maybe it is a lot sweeter if it is kept to oneself...
"Women love only those whom they do not know."
They prefer the unrealistic aspect of it- the mystery. Such a marvelous statement for the fair sex. It hints at the chaos females bottle inside- for they want the unrealistic when they cannot help but live their lives in reality. They want an escape, so they prefer not knowing, for they cannot control the mysterious.
" 'Aha!' he said, 'so that's the way you are! Didn't you intend not to make the princess' acquaintance in any other way but saving her from certain death?'
'I did better, 'I answered him,' I saved her from fainting at a ball.' "
"You see in everything the nasty side...you materialist."
"And then again...there is boundless delight int he possession of a young, barely unfolded soul! It is like a flower whose best fragrance emanates to meet the first rays of the sun (...) I look upon the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to myself as in the food sustaining the strength of my soul."
"Well what of it? If i am to die, I'll die! The loss to the world will not be large and, anyway, I myself am sufficiently bored."
That is one way to look at it
"And yet one lives- out of curiosity. One keeps expecting something new...Absurd and vexatious!"
Such pessimism. As if we are a creature that only knows how to hope, even in the worst of circumstances. When in reality let's just say that is mostly disappointing. And yet we hope!
"How curiously I examined every dewdrop that trembled upon a broad vine leaf and reflected a million iridescent rays!"
"Can evil possibly be so attractive?"
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This book I will always remember as an extremely hilarious book. It is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I will always remember the scene where the main character burst in on the princess and the other man. It is so unorthodox and unceremonious! Especially in that age. Oh yes, the word I would describe is provocative. And why provocative? For no reason at all! The man was just having fun. It is marvelously written, such sophistication and satire. I mean it ridicules so many things, in Chekhov's words, "a farce". Great fun to read.
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