Quotes by Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink

…I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. I tried to tell myself that I had known nothing of what she had done when I chose her. I tried to talk myself into the state of innocence in which children love their parents. But love of our parents is the only love for which we are not responsible. …And perhaps we are responsible even for the love we feel for our parents.

Children

Done

Parent

As a citizen and someone who was a judge on the constitutional law court for 18 years, I feel whenever I can raise my voice with the hope of being heard I need to do it, but I wouldn’t assign a special wisdom and responsibility to writers.

Law

Responsibility

Years

Bravery is good when the cause is good.

Bravery

Causes

But then she was not awkward, she was slow-flowing, graceful, seductive – a seductiveness that had nothing to do with breast and hips and legs, but was an invitation to forget the world in the recesses of the body

Awkward

Seductive

World

Desires, memories, fears, passions form labyrinths in which we lose and find and then lose ourselves again.

Labyrinth

Memories

Passion

I asked her about life, and it was as if she rummaged around in a dusty chest to get me the answers.

Answers

Chests

Ifs

I can’t say I’m thankful about being German because I sometimes experience it as a huge burden. But it is an integral part of me and I wouldn’t want to escape it. I have accepted it.

Accepted

Sometimes

Want

I’m not frightened. I’m not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.

Angel

Beautiful

Heaven

Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?

Beautiful

Memories

Sadness

It is hard for me to imagine that I felt good about behaving like that. I also remember that the smallest gesture of affection would bring a lump to my throat, whether it was directed at me or at someone else. Sometimes all it took was a scene in a movie. This juxtaposition of callousness and extreme sensitivity seemed suspicious even to me.

Affection

Gestures

Juxtaposition

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Accepted

Affection

Airplane

Angel

Answers

Arriving

Awkward

Beautiful

Betray

Bravery

Causes

Chests

Children

Cities

Criminals

Dark

Doctors

Doe

Done

Failing

Flight

Gestures

Guilty

Heaven

Ifs

Juxtaposition

Knows

Labyrinth

Late

Law

Memories

Pain

Parent

Passion

Past

Remembered

Responsibility

Retreat

Risk

Running

Running Away

Sadness

Seductive

Sometimes

Stay True

Struggle

Teacher

Too Late

Victory

Want

The Future Blueprint

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Quotes by Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink

As a citizen and someone who was a judge on the constitutional law court for 18 years, I feel whenever I can raise my voice with the hope of being heard I need to do it, but I wouldn’t assign a special wisdom and responsibility to writers.

Bravery is good when the cause is good.

But then she was not awkward, she was slow-flowing, graceful, seductive – a seductiveness that had nothing to do with breast and hips and legs, but was an invitation to forget the world in the recesses of the body

Desires, memories, fears, passions form labyrinths in which we lose and find and then lose ourselves again.

I asked her about life, and it was as if she rummaged around in a dusty chest to get me the answers.

I can’t say I’m thankful about being German because I sometimes experience it as a huge burden. But it is an integral part of me and I wouldn’t want to escape it. I have accepted it.

Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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