Goethe Dies

Thomas Bernhard

If Shopenhauer and Stifter were still alive, I would invite them both along with Wittgenstein, but Shopenhauer and Stifter are no longer alive, so I will only invite Wittgenstein. And when I think of it just now, thus said Goethe at the window, with his right hand supported by his cane, Wittgenstein is the greatest of all.

Every remark of mine was met by their misunderstanding and with this misunderstanding their assiduous vulgarity. Thus over the decades I have said less and less and finally nothing more, and their lectures have become evermore ruthless.

Waking up was nothing more than looking into hell.