Every word wants to be taken literally, else it decays into a lie. But one mustn't take any word literally, else the world becomes a madhouse. — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“Everything we feel and do is somehow oriented "lifeward," and the least deviation away from this direction toward something beyond is difficult or alarming. This is true even of the simple act of walking: one lifts one's center of gravity, pushes it forward, and lets it drop again - and the slightest change, the merest hint of shrinking from this… — Robert Musil Copy Share
“He was in that familiar state - not that the occasion mattered to seriously to him -- of incoherent ideas spreading outward without a… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
It is life that does the thinking all around us, forming with playful ease the connections our reason can only laboriously patch together piecemeal,… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“What is it you do, then? I'll tell you: You leave out whatever doesn't suit you. As the author himself has done before you. Just as you leave things out of your dreams and fantasies. By leaving things out, we bring beauty and excitement into the world. We evidently handle our reality by effecting some sort of compromise with it,… — Robert Musil Copy Share
and while faith based on theological reasoning is today universally engaged in a bitter struggle with doubt and resistance from the prevailing brand of rationalism, it does seem that the naked fundamental experience itself, that primal seizure of mystic insight, stripped of religious concepts, perhaps no longer to be regarded as a religious experience at all, has undergone an immense… — Robert Musil Copy Share
What is the use of good painting? We want a spell cast upon the optical part of our existence! We seldom really see the… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
That the will of the people can be established by voting for democrats is, of course, a delusion. Yet when considering a non-threatening system… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“Ein Mann, der die Wahrheit will, wird Gelehrter; ein Mann, der seine Subjektivität spielen lassen will, wird vielleicht Schriftsteller; was aber soll ein Mann… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“For a long time now a hint of aversion had lain on everything he did and experienced, a shadow of impotence and loneliness, an… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“All the knowledge that has led our species from wearing animal skins to people flying, complete with proofs, would fill a handful of reference… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
I also believe that few people remain completely untouched by the thought that instead of the life they lead there might also be another,… — Robert Musil Copy Share Image
“His appearance gives no clue to what his profession might be, and yet he doesn't look like a man without a profession either. Consider what he's like: He always knows what to do. He knows how to gaze into a woman's eyes. He can put his mind to any question at any time. He can box. He is gifted, strong-willed,… — Robert Musil Copy Share
