Krakatit quotes

“

Life is an explosive, see? Bang, and a man is born and then, bang, he falls to pieces.

And we think it lasts some years, see? Wait a moment, I’ve got something mixed, haven’t I?”

I am the first man, sir, who has overcome the coefficient of compressibility. I … I have extracted tantalum from bismuth. Listen, do you know the amount of power there is in one gram of mercury? Four hundred and sixty-two millions of kilogramometres.

Matter is frightfully powerful.

Matter is a regiment which is marching without moving: one two, one two; but give it the right order and the regiment will attack. En avant! That’s the explosion, you understand? Hurrah!”

I … I have extracted tantalum from bismuth. Listen, do you know the amount of power there is in one gram of mercury? Four hundred and sixty-two millions of kilogramometres. Matter is frightfully powerful.

Matter is a regiment which is marching without moving: one two, one two; but give it the right order and the regiment will attack.

En avant! That’s the explosion, you understand? Hurrah!”

He was exceedingly ashamed of his dream, dressed quietly, sat down at the window and waited for the dawn.

There is no frontier between night and day.

The sky becomes the slightest bit pale; there is still neither light nor sound; but the signal has been given to nature to awake! Now, while it is still night, morning has begun. The cocks crow, the animals move in their sheds.

It would be a picture of the world composed of figures and equations. But these figures of an astronomical order measured something other than the sublimity of the firmament; he was calculating the instability and destructibility of matter.

Everything that exists is a dull, latent explosive; but whatever the index of its inertia may be, it represents only an insignificant fraction of its explosive power.

Everything which takes place, the movement of the stars, tellurian work, entropy, active and insatiable life itself, all this is only on the surface, while invisibly and incalculably there is gnawing beneath it that explosive force which is called matter.

Consider now that the cord which binds it is nothing more than a cobweb on the limbs of a sleeping titan. Give him strength to disturb it and he will tear the surface off the globe, and hurl Jupiter on to Saturn.

And you, humanity, you are only a swallow which laboriously builds a nest under the roof of the cosmic powder magazine; you twitter in the eastern sun while in the casks beneath you there vibrates silently the terrible potential of explosion.

…

It was silly. He would have liked to bite her arm or something.

Women never seem to realize how much they disturb men.

Annie shrugged her shoulders, a little offended. “All right then.” And she was gone.

Prokop left a handful of money in return for her services and made off.

Prokop, Prokop, you are not the only man who intends to return in a week!

“We’re off, we’re off,” beat the wheels of the train. But its noisy, vibrating pace did not suffice for human impatience; human impatience desperately twisted about, drew his watch out of his pocket and nervously kicked his feet about.

He gets an inspiration. An idiotic and sublime inspiration—that perhaps by the use of electric waves he can bring that cursed salt into a better frame of mind, eh?

A man gets his finest inspirations through being stupid.

So he gets hold of some comic transformer and sets to work; what he did is at present his secret, but in the end … he will achieve the synthesis he wants. He’ll achieve it. Or at least, the oscillation will do it.

It was decided very differently from the way he imagined.

He had conceived a plan of seeking out in Balttin the person who had given himself out to be Carson and of saying to him something like this: “Whatever happens, I spit on your money;

The Princess smiled wearily and put her hand on his. “No, I beg you, don’t, don’t ask me to tell you.”

“You would have too much power over me,” she said quietly, and Prokop trembled with delight.

From outside there came the discreet cough of Mr. Holz, and behind the bushes in the distance could be seen the silhouette of Uncle Rohn. “Look, he’s searching for us,” whispered the Princess. “You mustn’t appear this evening.” Their hands grew quiet;

That evening he wandered about the park in the rain thinking of the Princess sitting in the salon in an atmosphere of gaiety and freedom; he felt like a mangy dog which had been kicked out into the rain.

There is nothing more painful in life than to be ashamed.

Now we’ll put an end to all this, he decided. He ran home, hurried into evening dress and burst into the smoking-room as he had the evening before.

She was squatting, her arms clasped round her knees. “Just see what a chair looks like from underneath. I’ve never seen such a thing before.” She placed on his face a hand which was still damp from the wet rag. “

You’re as rough as the under side of this chair; that’s the most lovely thing about you.

I’ve only seen other people on their smooth, polished side, but you, when one first looks at you, you’re like a beam with cracks in it—everything that holds the human frame together.

This was a church and that a house; there were the remains of a man. Force was a terrible thing and all evil came from it. A curse on force, the unregenerated spirit of wickedness. Like Krakatit, like himself.

Creative and industrious human weakness, all that is good and noble comes from you.

Your work is to bind and link together, to assemble parts and preserve what has been built up. Cursed be the hand which liberates force! Cursed be he who loosens the fetters which bind the elements!

Your work is to bind and link together, to assemble parts and preserve what has been built up. Cursed be the hand which liberates force! Cursed be he who loosens the fetters which bind the elements!

Humanity is only a little boat on an ocean of forces; and you, you have let loose a storm, the like of which has never been seen.

Yes, he was letting loose a storm of a kind which has never been known before; he was handing over Krakatit, liberating an element which would blow the boat of humanity into pieces. Thousands upon thousands would perish.

Thousands upon thousands would perish. Towns and peoples would be wiped off the face of the earth. There would be no limit to the power of anyone who had this weapon in his hands and a corrupted heart. He, Prokop, had done it.

Passion is terrible, the Krakatit of human hearts; and all evil comes from it.

He looked at the Princess—without contempt, torn by disturbing passion and sympathy. What was she thinking about now, motionless and as if in a trance? He bent down and kissed her shoulder. It was for this that he was giving up Krakatit.

I should be able to, I should certainly be able to, but … you’ve got a fiancée somewhere—go to her. Do you know it never occurred to me to ask you about her.

When one’s a princess one thinks that one’s alone in the world.

Do you love her?”

You know what a tremendous thing experiment is: good, the thing which all the rulers of the world fear most is that they should have to do something new, something unheard of, something perverse.

There’s nothing more conservative than ruling over human beings.

You are the first man in the world who can regard the whole world as his laboratory. This is the High Place of temptation;

He heard her walking about the room hesitatingly on the tips of her toes, putting something straight. He did not know what she was doing. She was now standing still silently.

There is an extraordinary power in flames and flowing water; you stare at them, become bewildered, cease to think, know nothing, and are unable to recollect anything, but before you there is represented everything that has ever happened without form and outside time.

There was the sound of one slipper being thrown down after the other; evidently she was taking her shoes off. Go to sleep, girl, when you are asleep we shall see who it is whom you resemble.

The paths of the world twist in a curious way. If you were to follow out all your steps and all the journeys you have made, what an intricate design they would make!

For by his steps everyone traces out his map of the world.

The paths of the world twist in a curious way. If you were to follow out all your steps and all the journeys you have made, what an intricate design they would make!

For by his steps everyone traces out his map of the world.

By the time that Prokop found himself standing in front of the grille before the factories at Grottup, it was already evening. The factory consisted of a great stretch of sheds, illuminated by the dull globes of arc lamps;