I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
Robert WalserRead
How small life is here and how big nothingness. The sky, tired of light, has given everything to the snow. The two trees bow their heads to each other. Clouds cross the world’s silence in a circle dance
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the contrast between the smallness of life and the vastness of emptiness, emphasizing nature's beauty and interconnectedness.
In this poignant quote, Robert Walser explores the existential themes of life and nothingness, suggesting that while human existence may seem insignificant against the backdrop of the universe, there is beauty in the simplicity of nature. The imagery of the trees bowing and the clouds dancing evokes a sense of harmony and quietude, inviting reflection on the interconnectedness of all beings within the vast silence of existence.
In practice
During a poetry reading about the beauty of nature.
I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
I am not here [in the sanitarium] to write, but to be mad.
The novel I am constantly writing is always the same one, and it might be described as a variously sliced-up or torn-apart book of myself.
And write whatever Time shall bring to pass_x000D_ _x000D_ With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
The less I have, the freer I am to do whatever I want to do.
Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.
He can give me what you cannot. Death is not a lover. Oh yes, he is.
Why is our own participation in scapegoating so difficult to perceive and the participation of others so easy? To us, our fears and prejudices never appear as such because they determine our vision of people we despise, we fear, and against whom we discriminate.
In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are.
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