Daniil Kharms famous quotes

03-28-2025

I was most happy when pen and paper were taken from me and I was forbidden from doing anything. I had no anxiety about doing nothing by my own fault, my conscience was clear, and I was happy. This was when I was in prison.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Taken #Anxiety #Paper
There lived a redheaded man who had no eyes or ears. He didnâ€™t have hair either, so he was called a redhead arbitrarily. He couldnâ€™t talk because he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didnâ€™t even have arms or legs. He had no stomach, he had no back, he had no spine, and he had no innards at all. He didnâ€™t have anything. So we donâ€™t even know who weâ€™re talking about. Itâ€™s better that we donâ€™t talk about him any more.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Eye #Men #Hair
One must write poetry in such as way that if one threw the poem in a window, the pane would break.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Writing #Way #Window
Open this notebookÂ everyÂ day and write down half a page at the very least. If you have nothing to write down, then at least, following Gogolâ€™s advice, write down that today thereâ€™s nothing to write. Always write with attention and look on writing as a holiday.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Notebook #Writing #Holiday
Is there anything on earth which would have meaning and would even change the course of events not only on earth, but in other worlds?â€ I asked my teacher. â€œThere is,â€ my teacher answered me. â€œWell, what is it?â€ I asked. â€œItâ€™s...â€ began my teacher and suddenly fell silent. I stood and waited intently for his answer. But he was silent. And I stood and was silent. And he was silent. And I stood, silent. And he was silent. Weâ€™re both standing and silent. Ho-la-la! Weâ€™re both standing and silent. Ho-le-le! Yes, yes, weâ€™re both standing and silent! 16-17 July 1937
-- Daniil Kharms

#Teacher #July #Other Worlds
I am interested only in "nonsense"; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestations.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Nonsense #Absurd #Manifestation
Eleven times Jesus died on the cross, Eleven times falls down a body thrown upward, Eleven times also I abandon the logical flow of thought.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Jesus #Fall #Atheism
Open this notebook every day and write down half a page at the very least. If you have nothing to write down, then at least, following Gogol’s advice, write down that today there’s nothing to write. Always write with attention and look on writing as a holiday.
-- Daniil Kharms

#Notebook #Writing #Holiday

People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true: People were taken from Africa, among them healers and priests, and were made into slaves.
The fact is that comedy is actually too serious to be taken seriously. It may be that comedy touches such deep emotions that people feel better if they can just dismiss it as trivial. Just take a big belly laugh. I have watched people laughing, and for a moment they look-and are-absolutely helpless. Vulnerability. You can be assaulted while you are laughing.
If you want to understand entrepreneurs, you have to study the psychology of the juvenile delinquent. They don't have the same anxiety triggers that we have.
The mind is intrinsically tranquil. Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusion are born. If one sees and knows this confusion, then the mind is tranquil once more.
Sweetness is the opposite of machismo, which is everywhere-and I really don't get on with machismo. I'm interested in sensitivity, and weakness, and fear, and anxiety, because I think that, at the end of the day, behind our masks, that's what we are.
Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.
Anxiety is the fear that one of a pair of opposites might cancel the other. Forever.
It is often wonderful how putting down on paper a clear statement of a case helps one to see, not perhaps the way out, but the way in.
In the little hall leading to it was a rack holding various Socialist or radical newspapers, tracts, and pamphlets in very small print and on very bad paper. The subjects treated were technical Marxist theories.
I had a paper round and every night I would put the dinner on before Mum came home from work. I was capable because I had to be.

Daniil Kharms famous quotes

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