--- title: "1 Edifice Quotes By W.G. Sebald" description: "1 Edifice quotes by W.G. Sebald. Plus more from W.G. Sebald and more Edifice sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/w-g-sebald-2-13661_justice_someone-he-added-ought-to-draw-up-a-cata_1084424.jpg" --- > [“Someone, he added, ought to draw up a catalogue of types of buildings listed in order of size, and it would be immediately obvious that domestic buildings of less then normal size – the little cottage in the fields, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/someone-he-added-ought-to-draw-up-a-catalogue-of-types-of-buildings/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b93/w-g-sebald-2-13661_justice_someone-he-added-ought-to-draw-up-a-cata_1084424.jpg) ## More by W.G. Sebald > [“The tiny features below, taken together with the gentle mass of Montblanc towering above them, the Vanoise glacier almost invisible in the shimmering distance,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/the-tiny-features-below-taken-together-with-the-gentle-mass-of/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“...I was just laying aside a Lausanne paper I'd bought in Zurich when my eye was caught by a report that said the remains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/i-was-just-laying-aside-a-lausanne-paper-i-d-bought-in-zurich-when-my/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“Is the destruction not, rather, irrefutable proof that the catastrophes which develop, so to speak, in our hands and seem to break out suddenly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/is-the-destruction-not-rather-irrefutable-proof-that-the-catastrophes/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“You adulterate the truth as you write. There isn't any pretense that you try to arrive at the literal truth. And the only consolation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/you-adulterate-the-truth-as-you-write-there-isn-t-any-pretense-that/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“In this little booklet, which had belonged to a maternal great-uncle of ... mine, who spent some time working as an office clerk in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/in-this-little-booklet-which-had-belonged-to-a-maternal-great-uncle/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“It is hard, said Mme Landau, when I told her about those railway lessons, in the end it is hard to know what it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/it-is-hard-said-mme-landau-when-i-told-her-about-those-railway/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“...I remembered the story Evan the cobbler had told me, about the two headstreams of Dwy Fawr and Dwy Fach which are said to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/i-remembered-the-story-evan-the-cobbler-had-told-me-about-the-two/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“Once I am at leisure, said Salvatore, I take refuge in prose as one might in a boat. All day long I am surrounded…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/once-i-am-at-leisure-said-salvatore-i-take-refuge-in-prose-as-one/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“What distinguishes art from such undertaker's business is that life's closeness to death is its theme, not its addiction.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/what-distinguishes-art-from-such-undertaker-s-business-is-that-life-s/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“Looking at those gashed bodies, and at the witnesses of the execution, doubled up by grief like snapped reeds, I gradually understood that, beyond…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/looking-at-those-gashed-bodies-and-at-the-witnesses-of-the-execution/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“I have even begun to speak in foreign tongues roaming like a nomad in my own town.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/i-have-even-begun-to-speak-in-foreign-tongues-roaming-like-a-nomad-in/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“From the outset my main concern was with the shape and the self-contained nature of discrete things, the curve of banisters on a staircase,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/from-the-outset-my-main-concern-was-with-the-shape-and-the-self/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“But I have never been able to bring myself to sell anything, except perhaps, at one point, my soul.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/but-i-have-never-been-able-to-bring-myself-to-sell-anything-except/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“Like our bodies and our desires, the machines we have devised are possessed of a heart which is slowly reduced to embers. From the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/like-our-bodies-and-our-desires-the-machines-we-have-devised-are/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) > [“I remember to this day how easily I could grasp what he called his tentative ideas when he talked about the architectural style of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-g-sebald-2/i-remember-to-this-day-how-easily-i-could-grasp-what-he-called-his/) [W.G. Sebald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-g-sebald-2/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/edifice/w-g-sebald-2/#itemlist", "name": "1 Edifice Quotes By W.G. Sebald", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Someone, he added, ought to draw up a catalogue of types of buildings listed in order of size, and it would be immediately obvious that domestic buildings of less then normal size – the little cottage in the fields, the hermitage, lockkeepers's lodge, the pavilion for viewing the landscape, the children's bothy in the garden – are those that offer us at least a semblance of peace, whereas no one in his right mind could truthfully say that he liked a vast edifice such as the Palace of Justice in the old Gallows Hill in Brussels. At the most we gaze at it in wonder, a kind of wonder which itself is a form of dawning horror, for somehow we know by instinct that outsize buildings cast the shadow of their own destruction before them, and are designed from the first with an eye to their later existence as ruins.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W.G. 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