Prince Otto quotes

You shall seek in vain upon the map of Europe for the bygone state of Grünewald.

An independent principality, an infinitesimal member of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning ghost.

An independent principality, an infinitesimal member of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning ghost.

Less fortunate than Poland, she left not a regret behind her; and the very memory of her boundaries has faded.

It was a patch of hilly country covered with thick wood. Many streams took their beginning in the glens of Grünewald, turning mills for the inhabitants.

Otto, who was weary with tossing and beset with horrid phantoms of remorse and jealousy, instantly fell dead in love with that sun-chequered, echoing corner. Holding his feet, he stared out of a drowsy trance, wondering, admiring, musing, losing his way among uncertain thoughts.

There is nothing that so apes the external bearing of free will as that unconscious bustle, obscurely following liquid laws, with which a river contends among obstructions.

It seems the very play of man and destiny, and as Otto pored on these recurrent changes, he grew, by equal steps, the sleepier and the more profound.

Eddy and Prince were alike jostled in their purpose, alike anchored by intangible influences in one corner of the world.

Eddy and Prince were alike useless, starkly useless, in the cosmology of men.

Eddy and Prince—Prince and Eddy.

I embrace the chance of thanking you for the ragout. Well now, have you not seen good food so bedevilled by unskilful cookery that no one could be brought to eat the pudding? That is me, my dear.

I am full of good ingredients, but the dish is worthless. I am⁠—I give it you in one word⁠—sugar in the salad.

”

show me your majority, and I will instantly resign. Tell this to your friends; assure them from me of my docility; assure them that, however they conceive of my deficiencies, they cannot suppose me more unfit to be a ruler than I do myself.

I am one of the worst princes in Europe; will they improve on that?

”

And yet it was a racy chapter! But had your Highness only read about the other courts!

I am a carrion crow; but it is not my fault, after all, that the world is such a nauseous kennel.

”

“Years,” she repeated. “Do you name the traitors?

I do not believe in years; the calendar is a delusion.

”

For instance, if I were to tell you that the Princess and the Baron rode out together daily to inspect the cannon, it is either a piece of politics or scandal, as I turn my phrase.

I am the alchemist that makes the transmutation.

They have been everywhere together since you left,” she continued, brightening as she saw Otto darken; “that is a poor snippet of malicious gossip—and they were everywhere cheered—and with that addition all becomes political intelligence.”

she sought to subjugate for by-ends, to rain influence and be fancy free; and, while she loved not man, loved to see man obey her.

It is a common girl’s ambition.

Such was perhaps that lady of the glove, who sent her lover to the lions. But the snare is laid alike for male and female, and the world most artfully contrived.

Gondremark cursed her in his soul.

Of all injured vanities, that of the reproved buffoon is the most savage;

and when grave issues are involved, these petty stabs become unbearable. But Gondremark was a man of iron; he showed nothing; he did not even, like the common trickster, retreat because he had presumed, but held to his point bravely.

“Often!” cried the Countess. “

I have broken all the ten commandments; and if there were more tomorrow, I should not sleep till I had broken these.

”

Otto had to walk very briskly and whistle very busily; and when at last he heard steps in the narrowest and darkest of the alleys, it was with a gush of relief that he sprang to meet the Countess.

To wrestle alone with one’s good angel is so hard! and so precious, at the proper time, is a companion certain to be less virtuous than oneself!

It was a young man who came towards him—a young man of small stature and a peculiar gait, wearing a wide flapping hat, and carrying, with great weariness, a heavy bag. Otto recoiled;

“No,” she said, “do not hurry me yet. I must speak to you. Not but I adore your thief; I adore anyone who has the spirit to do wrong.

I never cared for virtue till I fell in love with my Prince.

” She laughed musically. “And even so, it is not for your virtues,” she added.

and I called them almost virtues. Well, Otto, I was wrong; I have forsworn my sceptical philosophy; and I perceive your faults to be unpardonable. You are unfit to be a Prince, unfit to be a husband. And I give you my word,

I would rather see a man capably doing evil than blundering about good.

”

and love, like the shadow of a great rock, should lend shelter and refreshment, not to the lover only, but to his mistress and to the children that reward them; and their very friends should seek repose in the fringes of that peace.

Love is not love that cannot build a home.

And you call it love to grudge and quarrel and pick faults? You call it love to thwart her to her face, and bandy insults? Love!”

But I will clear my mind upon this matter: until I know the right and wrong of the transaction, I put my hand behind my back.

A man may be the pitifullest prince; he must be a spotless gentleman.

”

her little finger laid in either scale would set all flying: and she hugged herself upon her huge preponderance, and then laughed aloud to think how giddily it might be used.

The vertigo of omnipotence, the disease of Caesars, shook her reason.

“Oh the mad world!” she thought, and laughed aloud in exultation.

“Do you not understand my odious position?” cried the Countess.

“Dear Prince, it is upon your fall that I begin my fortune.”

“It was the more like you to tempt me to resistance,” returned Otto. “But this cannot alter our relations; and I must, for the last time, lay my commands upon you in the character of Prince.”

her eyes shone with stars; she dipped her sight into the coolness and brightness of the sky, as she might have dipped her wrist into a spring; and her heart, at that ethereal shock, began to move more soberly.

The sun that sails overhead, ploughing into gold the fields of daylight azure and uttering the signal to man’s myriads, has no word apart for man the individual; and the moon, like a violin, only praises and laments our private destiny.

The stars alone, cheerful whisperers, confer quietly with each of us like friends; they give ear to our sorrows smilingly, like wise old men, rich in tolerance;

“Is it so?” said Otto. “Why, then, what are we? Are the very best—”

“There is no best in man,” said Gotthold.

“I am not better, it is likely I am not worse, than you or that poor sleeper. I was a sham, and now you know me: that is all.”