Anna Seghers Quotes
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Wait, I thought to myself! He wants to wait until everything that once was dear to him is trampled under foot.
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When you're young and healthy you can recover quickly from a defeat. But betrayal is different—it paralyzes you.
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What can I expect here? You know the fairy tale about the man who died, don’t you? He was waiting in Eternity to find out what the Lord had decided to do with him. He waited and waited, for one year, ten years, a hundred years. He begged and pleaded for a decision. Finally he couldn’t bear the waiting any longer. Then they said to him: ‘What do you think you’re waiting for? You’ve been in Hell for a long time already.
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What magic was this, brewed from equal parts of age-old memories and total oblivion. One could have believed that the last war these people had fought had left only happy memories, had carried in its wake nothing but joy and prosperity. Women and girls were smiling as if their sons and lovers were invulnerable.
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Not only can what others are suffering be a consolation while we are suffering, but even knowing what others suffered long ago can be consoling.
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She had never been able to stand her husband, though not for one minute in their married life had she permitted this to make her unhappy. Only people who are fond of somebody can ever be unhappy, she had told her daughter before her wedding.