Axel Munthe Quotes

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts.

The wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. He is in front of it.

What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away, you keep forever.

To become a good dog-doctor it is necessary to love dogs, but it is also necessary to understand them - the same as with us, with the difference that it is easier to understand a dog than a man and easier to love him.

To my amazement, I have heard that there are people who have never seen a gnome. I can’t help pitying these people. I am certain there must be something wrong with their eyesight.

Norstrom always used to say that I had two different brains working alternatively in my head: the well developed brain of a fool and the un- developed brain of a sort of genius.

Death, the giver of Life, the slayer of Life, the beginning and the end.

Happiness we can only find in ourselves, it is a waste of time to seek for it from others, few have any to spare. Sorrow we have to bear alone as best we can, it is not fair to try to shift it on others, be they men or women. We have to fight our own battles and strike as hard as we can, born fighters as we are.

Dievai visas gėrybes parduoda tikrąja kaina, yra pasakęs vienas senovės poetas. Jis būtų galėjęs pridurti, kad pačias verčiausias jie parduoda pigiausiai. Viskas, kas mums tikrai naudinga - nebrangu; tik už tai, be ko galima apsieiti, mokam didelius pinigus. Kas gražu - išvis neparduodama; visa tai nemirtingieji dievai mums duoda veltui.

We know that we are going to die, in fact it is the only thing we know of what is in store for us. All the rest is mere guesswork, and most of the time we guess wrong. Like children in the trackless forest we grope our way through our lives in blissful ignorance of what is going to happen to us from one day to another, what hardships we may have to face, what more or less thrilling adventures we may encounter before the great adventure, the most thrilling of all, the Adventure of Death.

Why didn’t we build more hospitals and fewer churches, you could pray to God everywhere but you could not operate in a gutter!

Norstrom always used to say that I had two different brains working alternatively in my head: the well developed brain of a fool and the un- developed brain of a sort of genius.

All that is best in me I have given to (animals) and I mean to stand by them to the last and share their fate whatever it may be. If it is true that there is to be no haven of rest for them when their sufferings here are at an end, I, for one, am not going to bargain for any heaven for myself. I shall go without fear where they go, and by the side of my brothers and sisters from the forests and the fields, from skies to seas, lie down to merciful extinction in their mysterious underworld, safe from any further torments.” —Preface to The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe

Mes žinom, kad mirsim - tiesą sakant, vien tą ir težinom apie savo ateitį. Visa kita yra tik spėliojimai, kurie dažniausiai nepasitvirtina. Kaip vaikai neįžengiamoj girioj kiūtinam apgraibom per gyvenimą, laimingi, kad nežinom, kas mums nutiks rytoj, su kokiais susidursime negandais, kokie šiurpūs išmėginimai mūsų laukia prieš patį šiurpiausią išmėginimą - Mirtį. Kartkarčiais apstulbę ryžtamės baikščiai prašnekinti savo likimą, bet atsakymo į klausimą negauname, nes žvaigždės per toli. Juo greičiau suprasime, kad mūsų likimas pareina nuo mūsų pačių, o ne nuo žvaigždžių, juo mums bus geriau. Laimę galime rasti tik patys savyje, nesitikėkite jos sulaukti iš kitų - laimės taip mažai, jog retas gali ja dalytis. Skausmą turime pakelti vieni - nesąžininga užkrauti jį kitam, vis tiek, ar tai būtų vyras, ar moteris. Kiekvienas iš mūsų turi pats savo jėgomis kvėpuoti ir kirsti iš paskutiniųjų, kaip pridera kovotojams, nes mes tokie ir esame gimę. Visi mes vieną dieną sulauksime taikos, - taikos, kuri bus garbinga net nugalėtajam, jeigu jis ištvėrė iki galo.

Women, though they do not seem to know it themselves, like far better to obey than to be obeyed. They pretend to be our equals, but they know jolly well themselves that they are not – luckily for them, for if they were our equals we should like them far less. I think on the whole much better of women than of men, but I do not tell it to them. They have far more courage, they face disease and death much better than we do, they have more pity and less vanity. Their instinct is on the whole a safer guide through their life than our intelligence, they do not make fools of themselves as often as we do.

Kas nori prarasti pinigus - tepasilaiko juos sau, kas nori išsaugoti juos amžiams - teatiduoda kitam. be to, jūs neturite teisės pasilikti sau tų pinigų - juk jie nepriklauso jums, pinigai išvis nepriklauso žmonėms. Visi pinigai velnio nuosavybė, ir jis dieną naktį sėdi savo kontoroj ant aukso maišų ir perka už juos žmonių sielas. Pasistenkit greičiau atsikratyti nešvaraus pinigo, kurį jis bruka jums į delną, nelaikykite jo, nes šis prakeiktas metalas nudegins jums pirštus, įsisiurbs į kraują, apakins, užnuodys mintis ir sukietins širdį. Paaukokite jį "vargdienių seselėms", meskit tuos nelemtus pinigus į griovį - ten jų tikroji vieta! Kuriam galui krauti pinigus, jei vis tiek reikės jų netekti? Mirtis turi antrą raktą nuo jūsų pinigų skrynios. Dievai visas gėrybes parduoda tikrąja kaina, yra pasakęs vienas senovės poetas. Jis būtų galėjęs pridurti, kad pačias verčiausias jie parduoda pigiausiai. Viskas, kas mums tikrai naudinga - nebrangu; tik už tai, be ko galima apsieiti, mokam didelius pinigus. Kas tikrai gražu - išvis neparduodama; visa tai nemirtingieji dievai mums duoda veltui. Nemokamai galima gėrėtis saulėtekiai ir saulėlydžiais, danguje plaukiančiais debesėliais, giriomis ir laukais, nuostabai jūra. Dykai mums čiulba paukščiai, veltui galim prisiskinti pakelėj lauko gėlių ir įeiti į žvaigždėtą Nakties menę. Vargšas miega geriau nei turtuolis. Paprastas maistas ilgainiui pasidaro skanesnis negu įmantrūs patiekalai Rico restorane. Pasitenkinimas ir sielos ramybė geriau mėgsta kaimo pirkelę negu ištaigingus meisto rūmus. Keletas bičiulių, nedaug, labai nedaug knygų ir šuo - štai ir viskas, ko reikia žmogui, kol jis turi pats save.

<...> mano galvoje pakaitomis dirba dvejopos smegenys: gerai išsivysčiusios kvailio smegenys ir menkai išsivyčiusios genijaus smegenys.

Cilvēks neizturētu dzīves smagumu, ja zinātu savu nāves stundu.

Nāks laiks, kad cilvēki vairs nesmīnēs, kad viņi sapratīs, ka radītājs gan nodevis dzīvnieku pasauli mūsu žēlastībai, bet ne mūsu patvaļai: ka dzīvniekiem ir tādas pašas tiesības uz dzīvi kā mums un ka mūsu tiesības laupīt viņiem dzīvību ir stingri turamas mūsu pašaizsardzības un eksistences tiesību robežās.

Ne cepure ceļ vīru, bet galva.

I thought you gave it all to me as a gift. I was mistaken. It was only a loan, and now you want it all returned to you to be handed over to another being who will rise in his turn out of the same eternity into which I am sinking back. Lord of Light, be it so! The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!

Dievas buvo toks mielaširdingas, jog padarė Mirtį nematomą žmogaus akims. Mes žinom, kad ji čia pat, seka įkandin mūsų kaip šešėlis ir niekuomet nuo mūsų nesitraukia, Ir vis dėlto jos nematom ir veik visai apie ją užmirštam. O keisčiausia tai, kad juo labiau artėjam prie kapo, juo mažiau galvojam apie Mirtį. Iš tikrųjų tik Dievas galėjo padaryti tokį stebuklą!

Žiūrėjau į jį nustebęs. Jis man atrodė anaiptol ne toks piktas, kaip vaizdavausi - buvau matęs daug šlykstesnių veidų. Akmeninėse akyse nebuvo spindinčio džiugesio, jis atrodė senas ir išvargęs, atsibodėjęs lengvomis pergalėmis, atsibodėjęs savo pragaru. Vargšas senasis Belzebube! Gal, teisybę sakant, visai ne tu kaltas, kad mūsų pasauly kažkas netvarkoj, Juk, šiaip ar taip, ne tu suteikei gyvybę mūsų pasauliui, ne tu pasmerkei žmones kančioms ir mirčiai. Tu gimei su sparnais, o ne su ragais, tai Dievas tave pavertė velniu ir nutrenkė į pragarą, kad ten saugotum jo prakeiktas sielas. Be abejo, tu nebūtum išstovėjęs tiek amžių Notr Dam bokšte per lietų ir vėtras, jei būtum mėgęs savo darbą. Tikriausiai nelengva būti velniu tam, kurs gimė sparnuotas.

Pačios meilės, kaip ir gėlės, amžius neilgas. Vyro meilė miršta natūralia mirtimi santuokoje, o moters meilė dažnai tveriai iki pat galo, virtusi grynai motinišku švelnumu nuvainikuotam savo svajonių didvyriui.

- O kas yra Laikas? - paklausė gnomas. -To aš negaliu paaiškinti, ir niekas tau nepasakys, kas yra Laikas. Sako, kad Laikas susideda iš trijų skirtingų dalykų: praeities, dabarties ir ateities.

Ateis laikas, kai žmogus nebejaus malonumo žudydamas. Bet kol dar taip nėra, žmogus negali vadintis civilizuotu, jis paprasčiausias barbaras, trūkstamoji grandis tarp laukinių jo protėvių, kurie žudydavo kits kitą akmeniniais kirvukais dėl žalios mėsos gabalo, ir ateities žmogaus.

Žinau, kad gyvenimas puikus, bet taip pat žinau, kad mes dažnai jį subjaurojame ir paverčiame kvailu farsu arba šiurpia tragedija, arba abiem iš karto; ir galiausiai žmogus nebežino, ką daryti - ar verkti, ar juoktis. Verkti lengviau, bet juoktis kur kas geriau - tik ne garsiai!

Pakanka užeiti į klajojantį žvėryną, kad suprastume, kokie mes barbarai. Nuožmus laukinis žvėris ne tas, kuris uždarytas narve, o tas, kuris stovi prie jo.

Žmogus negalėtų pakelti gyvenimo, jei žinotų savo mirties valandą.

Gyvenimas tebėra toks kaip visuomet: nejautrus įvykiams, abejingas žmonių džiaugsmams ir sielvartui, nebylus ir mįslingas it sfinksas. Bet kad nebūtų monotoniškumo, scena, kurioje vyksta ši amžina tragedija, be paliovos keičiasi. Pasaulis, kuriame gyvenome vakar, - ne tas pasaulis, kuriame gyvename šiandien; jis, kaip ir mes patys, nepermaldaujamai skrieja per begalybę pasitikti savo likimo. Žmogus negali dukart nusimaudyti toje pačioje upėje, pasakė Herakleitas. Vieni šliaužioja keliais, kiti jodinėja ir važinėja automobiliais, dar kiti lenktyniauja su pašto balandžiais, skraidydami lėktuvais. Kam skubėti? Visi mes neišvengiamai prieisime kelio galą.

Professor Weir-Mitchell, the leading nerve specialist of America, with whom I had already had some dealings in my Paris days continued to send me his surplus of dilapidated millionaires and their unstrung wives. Their exuberant daughters who had invested their vanity in the first available Roman prince, also began to send for me in their sombre old palaces to consult me about their various symptoms of disillusion. The rest of the vast crowd of Americans followed like a flock of sheep.

I am convinced that you know more than I do about the human body in health and disease; it is just possible that although you are twice my age, I know more than you do about the human mind.

Love itself is short-lived like the flower. With man it dies its natural death in marriage, with woman it often survives to the last transformed in a purely maternal tenderness for the fallen hero of her dreams. Women cannot understand that man is by nature polygamous.

If the statement of the Salpêtrière school that only hysterical subjects are hypnotizable was correct it would mean that at least eighty-five per cent of mankind was suffering from hysteria.

The law of differentiation between the sexes is an mimutable law of Nature which runs through the whole creation to become more and more accentuated the higher the types are developed.

Even to-day no woman when her life or the life of her child is in danger will stick to a doctor of her own sex.

I said there was no reason why a quack might not be a good doctor, a diploma meant little to his patients as long as he was able to help them.

They are no criminals, but mere victims of a momentary absent-mindedness of Mother Nature, perhaps at their birth, perhaps at their conception. What is the explanation of the enormous increase of sexual inversion? Does nature revenge herself on the masculinized girl of to-day by rearing an effeminate son from her straightened hips and flattened breasts? Or are we the bewildered spectators of a new phase of evolution with a gradual amalgamation of two distinct animals into a new, hitherto unknown specimen, last survival of a doomed race on a worn-out planet, missing link between the Homo sapiens of today and the mysterious Super-Homo of tomorrow?

My father always told us that marriage was a very risky undertaking, and that it was a wise saying that one could not be too careful in the choice of one’s mother-in-law.

You cannot be a good doctor without pity.

that there is no drug as powerful as hope, that the slightest sign of pessimism in the face or words of a doctor can cost his patient his life.

Dideli mes ar maži - visų mūsų šansai vienodi.

No, there is no romance so stirring, so thrilling, and so heartrending as life's great epic; but its fate is the same as that of the Bible — there are but few who care to read it.

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts and to the singing of a bird outside his window and to the far-away voice of the sea.

I know that life is beautiful, but I also know that we often make a mess of it and turn it into a silly farce or a heart-rending tragedy, or both, so much so that one ends by not knowing whether to cry or to laugh. It is easier to cry, but far better to laugh, so long as one doesn’t laugh aloud.

Poets and philosophers, who in sonorous verse and prose hail Death as the Deliverer, often grow pale at the very mention of the name of their best friend.

I myself am beginning to have quite enough of colitis, and now since the Marquise is going to the country, I am replacing it with a lap-dog, more suitable to country-life.

If you come across a fashionable doctor, watch him carefully at a safe distance before handing yourself over to him. He may be a good doctor, but in very many cases he is not. First, because as a rule he is far too busy to listen with patience to your long story. Secondly, because he is inevitably liable to become a snob, if he is not one already,

Thirdly, unless his heart is very sound he will soon show unmistakable signs of precocious hardening of that organ; he will become indifferent and insensible to the suffering of others, like the pleasure-seeking people around him. You cannot be a good doctor without pity.

The cruel wild beast is not behind the bars of the cage, he stands in front of it.

One reviewer has discovered that “there is enough material in the Story of San Michele to furnish writers of short sensational stories with plots for the rest of their lives.” They are quite Welcome to this material for what it is worth.

Norstrom always used to say that I had two different brains working alternatively in my head, the well developed brain of a fool and the undeveloped brain of a sort of genius.

Besides I did not want any money, I should not know what to do with it, I was afraid of money, I hated it. I wanted to lead a simple life amongst simple, unsophisticated people. If they could neither read nor write, so much the better. All I needed was a whitewashed room with a hard bed, a deal table, a couple of chairs and a piano. The twitter of birds outside my open window and the sound of the sea from afar. All the things I really cared for could be got for very little money, I should be quite happy in the humblest surroundings as long as I had nothing ugly around me.

le malade au petit papier, as Charcot used to say.

soul needs more space than the body. Not

Лучше не писать мемуаров, оставив мертвым их покой, а живым их иллюзии.

A dog gladly admits the superiority of his master over himself, accepts his judgment as final, but, contrary to what many dog-lovers believe, he does not consider himself as a slave. His submission is voluntary and he expects his own small rights to be respected. He looks upon his master as his king, almost as his god, he expects his god to be severe if need be, but he expects him to be just. He knows that his god can read his thoughts and he knows it is no good to try to conceal them. Can he read the thoughts of his god? Most certainly he can. . . He knows by instinct when he is not wanted, lies quite still for hours when his king is hard at work as kings often are, or at least ought to be. But when his king is sad and worried he knows that his time has come and he creeps up and lays his head on his lap. Don't worry! Never mind if they all abandon you, I am here to replace all your friends and to fight all your enemies! Come along and let us go for a walk and forget all about it.

The Little People I heard patter about under the floor of the Lap tent, no more bring food to the sleeping bears in their winter quarters; that is why there are so few bears in Sweden today. You are welcome to laugh incredulously at these busy Little People as much as you like at your own risk and peril. But I refuse to believe that any reader of this book will have the effrontery to deny that it was a real goblin I saw sitting on the table in Forsstugan and pull cautiously at my watch-chain. (...) I am told, to my surprise, that there are people who have never seen a goblin. One cannot help feeling sorry for such people. I am sure there must be something wrong with their eyesight. Old Uncle Lars Anders in Forsstugan, six feet six in his sheepskin-coat and wooden shoes, is dead long ago, and so is dear old Mother Kerstin, his wife. But the little goblin I saw sitting cross-legged on the table in the attic over the cow-stall is alive.

Beware of searching for the answer to your question, man could not endure life if he was aware of the hour of his death.