Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it… — Thomas Mann

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

In the original German

Halte die Zeit! Uberwache sie, jede Stunde, jede Minute! Unbeaufsichtigt, entschlupft sie, dem Eidechslein gleich, glatt under treulos, ein Nixenweib. Heilige jeden Augenblick! Gib ihm Helligkeit, Bedeutung, Gewicht durch BewuBtstein, durch redlich-Erfullung!

Lotte in Weimar · 1939
★ 3.4
Other tags relating to this quote
Medium
Time
Provenance
Citation
Mann, Thomas. Lotte in Weimar [The Beloved Returns]. Stockholm: Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1939, ch. 7.