Josef Čapek

“ Iris. I’m in a queer mood to-day. How stupid it is to be a woman. I should like to be a man,—to kiss, to tempt, to overcome. Oh, Felix, I should make such a fearfully passionate man. I should—I should seize everything I wanted, brutally, savagely. What a pity you aren’t a girl. Let’s pretend, shall we? You be Iris, and I’ll be your Felix.
Felix. No, Iris—it’s too dangerous to be Felix. ”

“ Enchanting is the sound of Fame’s trumpet! That divine breath which lifts Fame’s locks and stirs her white robe makes drunken the hearts of men. Severus is nearing his goal. He is standing at the threshold of ancient secrets whose mystery he is about to solve. To him is granted the power to gain the friendship of those who mistrust, the craft to urge on the courage of hesitant lips, the wit to find the meaning of the silent tongue. Mouths which the fear of betraying old secrets has sealed for all others in the world will now bestow their favors upon him. ”

“ I see great waters, and my gaze beholds a sandy wilderness above which a red moon rises. Against a rocky shore a wave mournfully breaks and a mighty girdle of clouds drifts above the new continent. In the clouds a white bird soars and utters a piercing cry. The south wind and the east have clashed, and the first rain has gathered above the new continent. You must think of yourself. Sit down yonder on that promontory. From the new continent gaze out at the five old continents; they are five stars and in their midst the sixth one, the most beautiful of them, with its dark lustre. ”

“ Night and morning, toiled and moiled and saved and scraped.
Mr. Beetle. And we’ve seen it grow and grow, haven’t we, bit by bit—our little ball of blessedness.
Mrs. Beetle. Our very own it is.
Mr. Beetle. Our very own.
Mrs. Beetle. Our life’s work.
Mr. Beetle. Smell it, old woman—pinch it—feel the weight of it. Ours—ours.
Mrs. Beetle. A godsend.
Mr. Beetle. A blessing—straight from Heaven—capital—capital.
Chrysalis. Eternal night is breaking: The universe is waking: One minute, just one minute And I—I—shall be in it. ”

“ Oh, would that this city had collapsed last night, when all the seams of earth and heaven were ripped open amid turmoil! Oh, this ill-fated soil, permeated with so much blood and so many sighs, which the ages and generation after generation have poured upon it! (Threateningly.) Delusive city, bloated with the thoughts which you have stifled! You graveyard of hopes! Youth grows up from you like a poisoned blossom. Ah! far, far hence! Ah! a new life and a new world! Oh, cruel city! Oh, evil, pitiless youth! ”

“ I know every part of the world, all the islands and continents, and all the peoples inhabiting them. I need only shut my eyes, and my mind is filled with visions of which you will never be able to imagine the like; all the songs of this world, all the dances and kisses; all the characteristic towns, curious groves and blossoms, and all the other things of which the world is made up. I should like to celebrate all the women of different countries, praising them according to their colour, their bodies and dresses, all that differentiates them and all that they have in common. ”

“ One cannot live unless he eats!
It isn’t always true, that. Some people prefer to leave the bread and butter and depend upon love. A fine and rare thing, love, the most powerful force in the world, and sometimes the only thing in the universe that counts. The love of lovers is sweet indeed. I know nothing about the love that exists between friends, but I am sure that the tenderest love of all is the love between husband and wife.
When Severus was still only a student, he appeared to have no special qualities at all. ”

“ To Clytie?
Felix. No, no, no.
Iris. To whom, then?
Felix. To nobody, upon my honour, to nobody; or rather, to all the women in the world.
Iris. Good gracious! All the women in the——Felix, you’re a terrible rake. But you must let me know one thing—who’s your (whispering) ladybird now?
Felix. You won’t tell any one—you really won’t?
Iris. No.
Felix. I haven’t got one.
Iris. What?
Felix. Not yet—I swear it. (Very simply.)
Iris. Oh what a naughty fib! How many women have you told the tale to? I see through you, Felix. You’re a dangerous man. ”

“ Some parts also are uninhabited by either man or beast; nothing exists there but God’s freedom. Yet man’s real freedom is not to be found in one place, but in the whole world.’
While they were talking, they had their eyes perpetually on the ship which was making ready with unfurling sails like a bird which opens its wings to prepare for flight. A bell rang loud and long. Then the two men grudgingly stepped into their boat and begged Manoel: ‘Commend us to the protection of God, noble sir.’
‘Where are you going?’ asked Manoel. ”

“ The city and the people are all alive, and everything is the same as it was yesterday. I should like to be with you far away from here; I should like to be with you on a new earth, where there are no people, only we two with our love, in a new paradise, far from this city and the people, only we two, happy and alone. ”

“ Severus’ labors had become more and more extensive and important, and now he was a man honored and considered everywhere. He was like a great hunter, or an inveterate seeker of gold, who possesses a divining rod which guides him, directs his suspicions and his guesses, and finally reveals the secrets concealed in shadows, buried in the earth, and lying lost and forgotten amid the silent dust of remotest ages. Oh, epochs of antiquity, have you left any traces which speak forth from human lips? For the antique peoples have been destroyed, annihilated, and swept from the surface of the earth. ”

“ It’s not every one who could do that. Ah, my boy, that’s what you want—brains, expert knowledge, enterprise, imagination, initiative—and love of work, let me tell you.
Parasite. That’s what I say.
Ichneumon Fly. My good man, if you want to keep alive, you’ve got to fight your way. There’s your future, there’s your family. And then you know there must be a certain amount of ambition. A strong personality is bound to assert itself.
Parasite. That’s what I say, sir.
Ichneumon Fly. Of course, of course. Make your way in the world. Use the talent that’s in you, that’s what I call a useful life. ”

“ Second Street-Sweeper:
—with all this filth, and with our scrapers and brooms, and with us and our crooked legs and our regulation caps with the badge of this Babylon on them that stinks so vilely beneath my broom!
First Street-Sweeper:
I tell you, this city is the most miserable of all cities in the world. Anywhere is better than this.
Second Street-Sweeper:
Ah! you are right; the people and the cities are happier everywhere else. But this city, it is crumbling like a scurf, it oozes dirt like a sore, and fie! it sweats slime and spittle. ”

“ Here, in the foundations of the dwellings, one may learn of a rich patrimony of secret history, establishing the existence, anciently, of a race living beneath the surface of the earth and coming out from their habitation when the world was created. This noble race emerged from the soil as did the ancient Buffalo, the great ancestor of those numberless animals which have fallen beneath the spears of the ancient, audacious hunters. ”

“ Manoel sat up in his bed and continued: ‘There are so many experiences, and the story of my life is so long that I do not know where to begin, or how I can manage to omit nothing that is important. And how could I ever describe the beauty of all I have seen and felt? Surely, man is just to his life when he is about to die, and at this moment all my deeds and experiences seem to me of equally great importance and consequence. ”