Elective Affinities

Quotes

'I do not like having anything to do with peasants or townspeople unless I am in a position to give them direct orders,' Eduard replied.

'That point of view is not so far wrong,' the Captain said, 'for I too have experienced a great deal of irritation in my life from jobs of this kind. How hard it is for a man to weigh aright what must be sacrificed against what is to be gained! How hard to will the end and not despise the means!'

Quoted on December 11, 2010

To Weimar society marriage was a contract not a 'sacrament,' and divorce was a normal element of civilised life; but, like any society which still has the will to survive in it, Weimar society preserved and valued the social forms, and Goethe's irregular household was an embarrassment." -- R. J. Hollingdale, from the introduction

Quoted on December 11, 2010