Quotes

"If you were given an empty bookcase as a child, it would be interesting to note how many times and how the books would change by the time you were fifty? You would see a progression of intellectual development. I think that, not counting schoolbooks and technical books, the scale would show the following eight steps. I. Fairy tales, pulp fiction, illustrated bibles, all that is wonderful and dreamlike. II. Hunting adventures, horror novels, knightly tales, legends of chivalry, - the world of the glittering heroes. Of plays in which the leading part is played by a prima donna. A prima donna in hussar breeches or peasant trousers. Korpa III. IV. adventure novels. Sue, Dumas, Jókai, Verne, comic strips, world of dusty heroes. V. Romantic books. Jókai stays. Petőfi, Heine, Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare and some new poets. A world of flowers and moonlight. VI. Genuine journeys, history written in vernacular, biographies, poetic narratives; comedies, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Viktor Hugo (The Legend of the Ages). In between, naturalistic writers from Zola to Gorky. VII. Darwin, Häckel, Büchner, Schopenhauer, Moleschott, Spencer, tragedies from Shakespeare. VIII. Positivists. Hamlet from Shakespeare. Hamlet commentaries. Investigative history of Buckle. Teleology, theosophy, theology, theoretical spiritualism, biblical commentaries, occultism. Bible. Further on, also mainly spiritual readings. Well, it empties and fills the cabinet eight times. And from this sketchy list, can you judge where you are in your spiritual development? and where you're going next."

"- Up! When that is the slogan, the Hungarian nation is powerless. - Down! When this is the motto, the Hungarian nation is strong. The Hungarian nation is like gunpowder, which only puffs in the open air, but if a stone is pressed against it, the greater the pressure, the more thunderous and lightning-quick it bursts out."

"Delete this word from your dictionaries: hate. Put all evil under this title: imperfection. Hate is an animal emotion in us. The perfect man may face imperfection with away looking, smile, dislike, contempt, corrective intent, etc., but never with hatred. Hate carries with it weapons and poison, and a devilish face. Let it never find accommodation in you."

"Talk to everyone as if you were equals - until you know whether you are higher or lower - in perfection. For, to be noble or excellence is only to impress the foolish and the pocket-centred."

"What is eternity? For the peasant, the stone house. To the Egyptian king, the pyramid. For the Latin poet, the poem. To the Hungarian lord, the fee tail. But nothing is eternal in this hemisphere, but the one transience."

"The simpler you can live, the more you are in control of life. Only a small shelter, daily bread and decent clothes should be provided, and the rest should not be your overwhelming concern. This is not to say that those who have money should throw it away, but only that they should not live for it. Wealth, after all, is a safeguard against many inconveniences: let us be thrifty and save in our ways, but not hamsters. I do not subscribe to the views of Diogenes and Epictetus. What a man has, if he has it, is precious. It almost belongs to his body. My furnitures, my paintings, my books, my garden, my house, are as if they were part of my body. But I never forget that, just as my body is my secondary value, my possessions are even more inferior. I am sure that when I die, I will not regret the destruction of my body, nor will I regret the loss of my wealth. But as long as I live, I will take care of my body and value my wealth. Some wealth is also necessary to secure your independence. But draw the line of wealth at the point where you have a simple daily subsistence apart from your own shelter. More wealth should no longer be a sweating ambition."

"Wedding ring in the window. - Think before you go in to buy it, it's a leftover link from the slave system of bygone eras. - But how can I think: I'm in love!"

"What a golden nut 'then'! How it will be worn out by the time it's now. But some invisible angel will soon give man - the eternal child - another and another gilded nut."

"The villain is locked up to restrict its movement. We lock ourselves in when we have a cold, so that the outside air does not harm us. Is not the clothing of man in the flesh to remove the soul-man from the movement in the world, either voluntarily or by necessity? The wing of free will is clipped: the stork spends the winter in a courtyard."

"The art of pipe smoking.* Smoking a pipe is for rich people, smoking a cigar is for poor people. True pipe smoking is the purest and most humane way to smoke. The reason why rich people smoke cigars is because they cannot smoke a pipe. Smoking a pipe is science."

"A man of solitude: a whole man. The man who lives for company: partial man. This is evident from the fact that they feel that each other's cause is their own. They even care about who bought what hat or boots for how much. And what they really care about is who has what income and expenses, and how they live with their partner."

"The silent man - a sealed letter. The talking man - unloading crate."

"Every action we take is an answer to this question: Who am I? The more unusual the action, the stronger the answer."

"The public is always right. Here's the proof: If the director wants to corrupt one of his actors, he will give him a role that is not right for him. Then the audience says: - Well, we thought this actor was a great artist, but he's worthless."

"Feminists mention two or three women's names that are famous in intellectual and artistic work. Of course: there are women with beards too."

"Pleasant is the one who creates pleasant images in our minds. Hence the complaining man is dull and unpleasant. He evokes a group of bad images in our minds. (Understand what I mean by images. Every word, or at least every thought, evokes images in us.)"

"Philosophers talk only about the infinity of space and time, as if there were no other infinities. But they are right under our noses. Life, and all the phenomena of life. Everything that is incomprehensible and immeasurable is also infinite."

"The cultural sections of newspapers are like pieces of broadcloths at the tailor's shop. The slice is usually made of a valuable single fabric, but that's just muster ohne wert (sample without value)."

"Social classes are separated not by pride, nor by money, nor by broadcloth, but by soap."

"What is physical life? Is it not a temporary state? What is suffering? Is it not a voluntary Penance to ourselves? What is death? Is it not a transformation into another state of soul? And what is family? Is it not the joining together of broken links? And what is the power in man that stirs the heart in the face of evil, and stirs it in the face of good? What is the force that impels man to improvement, to perfection?"