Centre for Romanian Studies

Romanian Dictionary of Quotations, Selected & Translated by Constantin ROMAN: Letter A

Ageing:
Man never changes, nothing in the world would change him, the deepest experience cannot ever transform his essence, which is definitive. One gets older, that’s all. One judges things less easily and one reacts, following a crisis, or a revealing fact of life, with greater wisdom. The illusions are shed like useless plumage. One is wiser. Or one gets completely mad.
(Vintila Horia (1915-1992), Writer, Diplomat)
(Dieu est né en exil, Fayard, 1960)

Airplanes:I have never seen a bird with more than two wings
(Traian Vuia, (1872-1950),
Inventor, Aeronautical engineer)

Airplanes:
These aeroplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a toy made of paper children use to play with. My opinion is we should search for a completely different flying machine, based on other flying principles. I consider the aircraft of the future, that which will take off vertically, fly as usual and land vertically. This flying machine should have no parts in movement. The idea came from the huge power of the cyclones.
(Henry Marie Coanda (1886-1972),
Inventor, Aeronautical engineer)

Alienation:
Being a professional politician destroys normal relationships between human beings, it alienates them. Commitment to a cause amputates man. The Sartres of this world are great alienators of spirit.
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)
(Notes et Contre-Notes)

Aliens:
From the Dniester to the Theiss
The Romanian groans and sighs.
He can hardly breathe, so dense
Is the swarm of aliens.
(Mihai Eminescu, (1850-1889) poet, Journalist)

Anti-Christ:
The anti-Christ is dead!
(Romanian television broadcast
announcing the execution of Ceausescu, 25th December, 1989)

Anti-Communist Fighters:
A former Securitate general in his book on the anti-Communist resistence in the Fagaras Mountains stated that there were only five or six individuals. Well, let us count them, comrade general!
Going through this long list the reader must know that behind each name there is a tragedy: a man killed or jailed for many years, tortured at the Securitate HQ or in prison, a family which was quashed, households ruined, sorrow and suffering, fear and hopelessness, broken destinies, many of which could never be revived. Never ever in the Lands of Fagaras so much suffering was encountered except during those years. At the same time never had so many people risen so determined and united then when they fought against communism.
(Ogoranu, Ioan Gavrila, guerrila fighter,
Brazii nu se indoaie, se frang (Firtrees do not bend, they break),
Eds Marineasa, Timisoara, vol 3, 1999).

Aphorism:
The aphorism? It is the fire without the flame. One understands that nobody comes near it to keep warm.
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer))
(De l’inconvenient d’etre ne)

Aphorism:
The only person that cultivates aphorisms is the one who had experienced fear in the midst of words, this fear of tumbling down with them.
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer)
(Syllogismes de l’amertume)

Aphorism:
More than in poetry, it is in aphorism that the word is God.
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer)
(Ecartelement)

Art:
All pictorial art is useless. Art should be a monster which casts servile minds into terror.
(Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), poet, essayist, Leader of Dada movement)

Art:
Art, you will remember, is a puppet-like, iambic, five-footed thing – and this last characteristic has its mythological validation in Pygmalion and his statue – without offspring.
(Paul Celan (1920-1970), Poet)
(Speech on the occasion of receiving the Georg Buchner Prize,
Darmstadt, 1960)
(Collected Prose, Carcanet, 1986)

Artist:
The artist is not a luxury animal, but an austere animal. Art is only committed to austerity and to drama, like a perfect crime.
(Constantin BRANCUSI (1876-1957), Sculptor)

Artists:
The artists killed the art.
(Constantin BRANCUSI (1876-1957), Sculptor)

Author:
An author does not teach. He invents.
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)

Avant-garde:
Avant-garde is freedom.
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)

Awakening:
Awake, awake Romanians from your lethargic sleep,
In which your foreign tyrants have sunken you so deep!
It’s either now or never to shape a fate for you,
To whose behest should cower your cruel enemies too!
(Andrei Muresanu (1816, Bistrita-Brasov, 1863),
Transylvanian poet, author of the Romanian National Anthem
(Desteapta-te Romane)

AUTHORS:
ANONYMOUS, Constantin BRANCUSI, Paul CELAN, Emil CIORAN, Henri COANDA, Mihai EMINESCU, Vintila HORIA, Eugene IONESCO, Alexandru MURESANU, Ioan Gavrila OGORANU, Tristan TZARA, Traian VUIA,

KEY WORDS:
Aging, Airplanes, Alienation, Aliens, Anti-Christ, Anti-Communist, Aphorism, Art, Artist, Author, Avant-garde, Awakening,