home Audience 2 Erich Maria Remarque “Life on Borrow” - quotes and phrases from the book. “Everyone lives for the minute”: the best quotes from the novel “Life on Borrow” by E.M. Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque “Life on Borrow” - quotes and phrases from the book. “Everyone lives for the minute”: the best quotes from the novel “Life on Borrow” by E.M. Remarque

“You look so happy! Are you in Love?
Yes. In a dress."

“Reason is given to man to understand: it is impossible to live by reason alone. People live by feelings, and feelings don’t care who is right.”

“Breathe deeply, admire the mountains, thank God for your salvation and think that much better people than you had to die.”

“Some people leave too late, and some people leave too early, you have to leave on time...”

“A person who has a long life ahead of him does not pay any attention to time; he thinks he has an eternity ahead of him. And when he then sums it up and calculates how long he really lived, it turns out that he only had a few days or, at best, a few weeks.”

“You think I’m throwing my money away, but I think you’re throwing your life away.”

“Does it really mean that in order to understand something, a person needs to experience a catastrophe, pain, poverty, the proximity of death?!”

“The fireworks have gone out, why rummage through the ashes?”

“I feel like I’m among people who are going to live forever. At least that's how they behave. They are so preoccupied with money that they have forgotten about life.”

“Whoever wants to hold on loses. They try to keep those who are ready to let go with a smile.”

“She knew that a hat that suits you serves as a greater moral support than a whole set of laws. She knew that in the thinnest evening dress, if it fits well, you can’t catch a cold, but it’s easy to catch a cold in the dress that irritates you, or in the one whose double you see on another woman at the same evening... But she I also knew that in moments of difficult emotional experiences, dresses can become either good friends or sworn enemies; Without their help, a woman feels completely lost, but when they help her, as other people help, it is much easier for a woman in difficult times.”

“Apparently life loves paradoxes: when it seems to you that everything is absolutely in order, you often look funny and stand on the edge of an abyss, but when you know that everything is lost, life literally gives you a gift. You don’t even have to lift a finger, luck itself runs after you like a poodle (Lillian)"

“After all, a woman can leave her lover, but she will never leave her dress (Clerfe)”

“Who knows, maybe life was given to us as punishment for the crimes that we committed somewhere in another world? Perhaps our life is hell and the churchmen are mistaken, promising us hellish torments after death.”

“You come, watch a play in which at first you don’t understand a word, and then, when you begin to understand something, it’s time for you to leave.”

“If a person has not waited for anyone for a long time, waiting makes him ten years younger. Or even twenty.”

“Exceeding the speed given to people does not mean becoming God.”

“I want to own everything, and that means owning nothing.”

“After all, a woman can leave her lover, but she will never leave her dress.”

“Compassion is a bad companion, but it’s even worse when it becomes the goal of the journey.”

“You don’t always do the right thing, my son. Even if you yourself realize it. But this is precisely the beauty of life sometimes. »

“In a country where money is given pet names, there will never be fascism.”

“Chess is a world in itself, knowing neither vanity nor... death.”

“People are always funny,” Clerfay objected. “And if you realize this, life seems much easier.”

“No one can escape fate. And no one knows when it will overtake you. What's the point of bargaining with time? And what, in essence, is a long life? Long past. Our future each time lasts only until the next breath. Nobody knows what will happen next. Each of us lives for the minute. Everything that awaits us after this minute is only hopes and illusions.”

“The simplest feelings are the strongest feelings. And one of them is jealousy.”

“Past mistakes cannot be corrected by any means, least of all by logic.”

“Every man, if he does not lie to a woman, speaks nonsense.”

“We are all getting old. You just need to be able to arrange your life before it’s too late.”

“Life is a sailboat with too many sails, so it can capsize at any moment.”

“It’s strange,” she thought, “how one-sided a person is; he recognizes only his own experience and only the danger that threatens him personally.”

“Courage is not the same as the absence of fear; the first involves the consciousness of danger, the second is the result of ignorance.”

“This was the tragedy of the athlete: if you do not die in time, you are destined to pull the usual strap.”

“It all depends on where you look from - these are the simple lessons life sometimes gives us”

“Do you think that marriage binds a woman more than clothes, and that she will return sooner?”

“In a moment of mortal anguish, it is good to have a loved one next to you. I don't know if he's right; I think that at such moments people are so hopelessly lonely that they will not even notice if a whole crowd of close people gathers around their bed.”

“You should always leave a little free space; There is no need to completely complete the drawing, otherwise there will be no room for imagination.”

“A person always becomes a prisoner of his own dreams, and not of someone else’s.”

“The opposite of love is death. The bitter spell of love helps us forget about it for a short time. Therefore, everyone who is at least a little familiar with death is also familiar with love.”

“How clumsy a person becomes when he truly loves! How quickly his self-confidence flies away! And how lonely he seems to himself; all his vaunted experience suddenly dissipates like smoke, and he feels so insecure. »

“After all, these are all just words. You juggle them when you don’t have the strength to move on; then you forget them again. They are like the splashes of a fountain: you listen to them for a while, and then you begin to hear something that cannot be expressed in words.”

“A dress is more than a fancy dress. In new clothes, a person becomes different, although this is not immediately noticeable. Anyone who truly knows how to wear dresses perceives something from them; Oddly enough, dresses and people influence each other, and this has nothing to do with rough dressing up at a masquerade. You can adapt to your clothes and at the same time not lose your individuality. For those who understand this, dresses do not kill them, like most women who buy their outfits. Quite the contrary, such a person is loved and protected by dresses. They help him more than any confessor, than unfaithful friends, and even than a lover.”

"Sitting in the sun is almost the same as talking about love."

“All people on earth, from the dictator to the last beggar, behave as if they will live forever. If we constantly lived with the awareness of the inevitability of death, we would be more humane and merciful."

How beautiful are these women who do not allow us to become demigods, turning us into fathers of families, into respectable burghers, into breadwinners; women who catch us in their nets, promising to turn us into gods...

There is no turning back in love. You can never start over: what happens remains in the blood... Love, like time, is irreversible. And neither sacrifices, nor readiness for anything, nor good will - nothing can help, such is the gloomy and ruthless law of love.

Whoever wants to hold on loses. They try to hold on to those who are ready to let go with a smile.

Who knows, maybe life was given to us as punishment for the crimes we committed somewhere in another world? Perhaps our life is hell and the churchmen are mistaken, promising us hellish torments after death.
- They also promise us heavenly bliss.
- Then maybe we are all fallen angels, and each of us is doomed to spend a certain number of years in a hard labor prison in this world.

In moments of difficult emotional experiences, dresses can become either good friends or sworn enemies; Without their help, a woman feels completely lost, but when they help her, as friendly hands help, it is much easier for a woman in a difficult moment. There is not an ounce of vulgarity in all this, we just shouldn’t forget how important little things are in life.

In the thinnest evening dress, if it fits well, you cannot catch a cold, but it is easy to catch a cold in the dress that irritates you, or in the one whose double you see on another woman at the same evening.

A woman can leave her lover, but she will never leave her dresses.

In such cases, people always say false words, always lie, because the truth then is senseless cruelty, and then they experience bitterness and despair, because they were unable to part in any other way and because the last memories that remain for them are memories of quarrels, misunderstandings and hatred.

In difficult times, naivety is the most precious treasure, it is a magic cloak that hides those dangers that a smart guy jumps straight into, as if hypnotized.

I realized that there is no place that is so good that it is worth throwing your life away for. And there are almost no people for whom it would be worth doing this. Sometimes you reach the simplest truths in a roundabout way.

So why do I love you?
- Because I'm with you. And because you love life. And for you I am a nameless piece of life. Is it dangerous.
- For whom?
- For someone who has no name. It can be replaced at any time...

Everything in the world contains its opposite; nothing can exist without its opposite, like light without shadow, like truth without lies, like illusion without reality - all these concepts are not only related to each other, but also inseparable from each other...

You look so happy! Are you in Love?
- Yes. In a dress.
- Very reasonable! Love without fear and without difficulties.
- This doesn’t happen.
- No, it happens. This is an integral part of the only love that makes sense at all - love for oneself.

They don’t understand life, she thought. They hang out in their offices and bend their backs at their desks. You might think that each of them is doubly Methuselah. That's their whole sad secret. They live as if death does not exist. And at the same time they behave not like heroes, but like traders! They drive away the thought of the transience of life, they hide their heads like ostriches, pretending that they have the secret of immortality. Even the most decrepit old people try to deceive each other, increasing what has long turned them into slaves - money and power.

A person always becomes a prisoner of his own dream, and not of someone else’s.

Almost no person thinks about death until it comes close to him. The tragedy and at the same time the irony is that all people on earth, from the dictator to the last beggar, behave as if they will live forever. If we constantly lived with the awareness of the inevitability of death, we would be more humane and merciful.
“And more impatient, desperate and fearful,” Lillian said, laughing.
- And more understanding and generous...
- And more selfish...
- And more selfless, because you can’t take anything with you to the next world.

You are happy?
- What is happiness?
- You're right. Who knows what this is? Maybe stay above the abyss.

How was your first meeting with this world?
“I feel like I’m among people who are going to live forever.” At least that's how they behave. They are so busy with money that they have forgotten about life.

No one can escape fate. And no one knows when it will overtake you. What's the point of bargaining with time? And what, in essence, is a long life? Long past. Our future each time lasts only until the next breath. Nobody knows what will happen next. Each of us lives for the minute. Everything that awaits us after this minute is only hopes and illusions.

People live by feelings, and feelings don’t care who is right.

Reason is given to man so that he understands: it is impossible to live by reason alone.

Apparently, life loves paradoxes: when it seems to you that everything is in absolute order, you often look funny and stand on the edge of an abyss. But when you know that everything is lost, life literally gives you a gift - you may not even lift a finger, luck itself runs after you like a poodle.

translation from German
selection of quotes - Maxim Malinovsky

She knew what he would tell her. She also knew that he would be right; but what is the benefit of that, even if you know that the other is right? Reason is given to man so that he understands: it is impossible to live by reason alone.

People live by feelings, and feelings don’t care who is right.

And why do these guardians of health treat people who are admitted to the hospital with such patient superiority, as if they were babies or idiots?

“They are taking revenge for their profession,” Lillian answered with hatred. - If this right is taken away from waiters and hospital nurses, they will die from an inferiority complex.

No one can escape fate,” he said impatiently.

And no one knows when it will overtake you. What's the point of bargaining with time? And what, in essence, is a long life? Long past. Our future each time lasts only until the next breath. Nobody knows what will happen next. Each of us lives for the minute. Everything that awaits us after this minute is only hopes and illusions.

I believe in the benefits of the forbidden. This is also therapy,” Clerfay said. - Don’t you believe it?

I don't believe it for others...

Believe me, said Richter, chess gives our thoughts a completely different direction. They are so far from everything human... from doubts and melancholy... this is such an abstract game that it calms. Chess is a world in itself, knowing neither vanity nor... death. They are helping. But we don’t want more than that, right?

Then I wanted to leave without saying goodbye and write to you from there, but I couldn’t do that either. Don't torture me, Boris...

Don’t torment me, he thought. - They always say that, these women are the personification of helplessness and selfishness, never thinking about the fact that they are torturing another. But if they even think about it, it becomes even harder, because their feelings are somewhat reminiscent of the compassion of a soldier who escaped from an explosion, whose comrades are writhing in agony on the ground - compassion that silently screams: thank God, they didn’t hit me, they didn’t hit me hit...

Fool, he thought. - I'm doing everything to push her away! Why don't I say, smiling, that she is right? Why don't I use the old trick? Whoever wants to hold on loses. They try to hold on to those who are ready to let go with a smile. Have I really forgotten this?

Life was something great to Lillian, and death was something great - they were not to be trifled with. Courage is not the same as the absence of fear; the former involves the consciousness of danger, the latter the result of ignorance.

Exceeding the speed given to people does not mean becoming a god. It is said that only the human brain is capable of inventing the means by which man surpasses his own speed. It is not true. Doesn't a louse, having climbed into the plumage of an eagle, surpass itself in speed?

She came down from the stands, row by row. She was followed by many eyes, like many tiny mirrors. What is reflected in them? - she thought. - It's always the same. Emptiness and the desires that these people experience. Then she suddenly stopped, as if overcoming a gust of wind. For a second it seemed to her that everything around her had disappeared, like a colorfully painted theater set decorated with gold leaf. Lilian saw bare grates - the skeleton of these decorations. For a moment she seemed to sober up. But the grate bars continued to stand, and she realized that she could again hang any decorations on them. Probably almost no one knows this, she thought. - After all, every person lives with one and only scenery; he firmly believes that only she exists in the world, not knowing that the decorations are endless. But he lives against the backdrop of his scenery until it becomes old and shabby, and then this torn gray rag covers him like a gray shroud, and then the man again deceives himself, saying that wise old age has come and that he has lost illusions . In reality, he simply did not understand anything.

Lillian heard cars whizz past the stands like torpedoes. A warm wave washed over her.

Wisdom is always young, she thought. “There are a lot of scenery in the world, the game never stops, and anyone who has seen naked grates in all their terrible nakedness and did not shrink back in fear can imagine an infinite number of scenes with a wide variety of scenery.” Tristan and Isolde never died. Neither Romeo and Juliet, nor Hamlet, nor Faust, nor the first butterfly, nor the last requiem died.

She realized that nothing dies, everything just undergoes a series of transformations. Lillian felt that people should read her new thoughts; for her, the world suddenly became like a hall with animated golden statues, which threw the word end far to the constellations, and this word, gloomy and pitiful, circles, forgotten by everyone.

As long as you remember the constant fall, nothing is lost. Apparently, life loves paradoxes; when it seems to you that everything is absolutely in order, you often look funny and stand on the edge of an abyss, but when you know that everything is lost, life literally gives you a gift. You may not even lift a finger, luck itself runs after you like a poodle.

How clumsy a person becomes when he truly loves! How quickly his self-confidence flies away! And how lonely he seems to himself; all his vaunted experience suddenly dissipates like smoke, and he feels so insecure.

After all, these are all just words. You juggle them when you don’t have the strength to move on; then you forget them again. They are like the splashes of a fountain: you listen to them for a while, and then you begin to hear something that cannot be expressed in words.

A dress is more than a fancy dress. In new clothes, a person becomes different, although this is not immediately noticeable. Anyone who truly knows how to wear dresses perceives something from them; Oddly enough, dresses and people influence each other, and this has nothing to do with rough dressing up at a masquerade. You can adapt to your clothes and at the same time not lose your individuality. For those who understand this, dresses do not kill them, like most women who buy their outfits. Quite the contrary, such a person is loved and protected by dresses. They help him more than any confessor, than unfaithful friends, and even than a lover.

Lillian knew all this. She knew that a hat that suits you serves as a greater moral support than a whole set of laws. She knew that in the thinnest evening dress, if it fits well, you cannot catch a cold, but it is easy to catch a cold in the dress that irritates you, or in the one whose double you see on another woman at the same evening; such things seemed as irrefutable to Lillian as chemical formulas. But she also knew that in moments of difficult emotional experiences, dresses can become either good friends or sworn enemies; Without their help, a woman feels completely lost, but when they help her, as friendly hands help, it is much easier for a woman in a difficult moment. There is not an ounce of vulgarity in all this, we just shouldn’t forget how important little things are in life.

Lilian suddenly imagined everything that would happen between her and Clerfay; it seemed to her that she saw a long corridor. The corridor becomes narrower and narrower, and there is no exit in sight. She can't walk on it. And there is no turning back in love. You can never start over: what happens remains in the blood. Clerfay will no longer be the same with her as before. He can be like this with any other woman, just not with her. Love, like time, is irreversible. And neither sacrifices, nor readiness for anything, nor good will - nothing can help; such is the dark and merciless law of love.

The place where you live has nothing to do with life itself,” he said slowly. “I realized that there is no place that would be so good that it would be worth throwing your life for. And there are almost no people for whom it would be worth doing this. Sometimes you reach the simplest truths in a roundabout way.

But when they tell you about it, it still doesn’t help. Is it true?

Yes, it doesn't help. You have to experience it yourself. Otherwise it will always seem like you missed the most important thing.

The novel “Life on Borrow” by E. M. Remarque, deliberately devoid of historical background and political background, is rightfully considered one of the most piercing and dramatic works about the meaning of life. It is with books like these that comes an understanding of the value of every day you live. The aphorisms and quotes from “Life on Borrow” that have become so firmly ingrained in our speech are actually the result of the writer’s deep philosophical reflections on the meaning of being, death, time, love, and inner freedom. We have collected the most beautiful and vivid sayings from this work, which attract not only with the beauty of the style, but also amaze with their wisdom, accuracy and relevance.

Life on loan. Life when you don’t regret anything, because, in essence, there is nothing left to lose. This is love on the verge of doom. This is luxury on the verge of ruin. This is fun on the verge of grief and risk on the verge of death. There is no future. Death is not a word, but a reality. Life goes on. Life is Beautiful!..

You think that I am throwing away my money, but I think that you are throwing away your life.

And what, in essence, is a long life? Long past. Our future each time lasts only until the next breath. Nobody knows what will happen next. Each of us lives for the minute. Everything that awaits us after this minute is only hopes and illusions.

You don't always do the right thing, my son. Even if you yourself are aware of it. But this is precisely the beauty of life sometimes.

About death and hardship

“Some people leave too late, and some people leave too early,” he said, “you have to leave on time...”

Really, in order to understand something, a person needs to experience a catastrophe, pain, poverty, the proximity of death?

The tragedy and at the same time the irony lie in the fact that all people on earth, from the dictator to the last beggar, behave as if they will live forever. If we constantly lived with the awareness of the inevitability of death, we would be more humane and merciful.

About the mind, feelings and desires

Reason is given to man so that he understands: it is impossible to live by reason alone. People live by feelings, and feelings don’t care who is right.

A person always becomes a prisoner of his own dream, and not of someone else’s.

There will always be people who are worse off than you.

The fireworks have gone out, why rummage through the ashes?

I want to own everything, which means owning nothing.

About happiness and love

In fact, a person is truly happy only when he pays the least attention to time and when he is not driven by fear.

– You look so happy! Are you in Love?
- Yes. In a dress.
- Very reasonable! - said Pestr. – Love without fear and without difficulties.
- This doesn’t happen.
- No, it happens. This is an integral part of the only love that makes sense at all - love for oneself.

...How clumsy a person becomes when he truly loves! How quickly his self-confidence flies away! And how lonely he seems to himself; all his vaunted experience suddenly dissipates like smoke, and he feels so insecure.

Whoever wants to hold on loses. They try to hold on to those who are ready to let go with a smile.

A writer becomes great when his works are widely quoted. Even if you see some of them for the first time, they are already able to surprise you with the strength, depth and subtlety of thought. After all, wise sayings are also an excellent guide to our own world of feelings and experiences.