“Can nothing be done for freedom because the public conscience is inert?”

“The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.”

“Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,Through which the living Homer begged his bread ...”

“Throughout the history of the Deutschritter the German genius is very evident, romantic idealism implemented with utter ruthlessness.”

“It's a simple world for her. A curtain fluttering - that's how she is - lives, moves - obediently, yet with every appearnace of freedom and caprice.”

“We shall live for no reason. Then die and be done with it. What a recognition! What shall save us? Only the knowledge that we have lived without illusion, not excluding the illusion that something will save us. —William H. Gass, “Mr. Gaddis and His Goddamn Books” (2006)”

“Why were they whining then?...whining, damn them, whining… Because they’d have to give up their hope of living like an animal and return to an honest, conscious, human life. The prospect was hard.”