Momo Quotes

“...it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop--and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.

You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.

That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.

And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what's more, you aren't out of breath. That's important, too...”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming ever poorer, bleaker and more monotonous. The ones who felt this most keenly were the children, because no one had time for them any more. But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time.

Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.

Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. ”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Those who still think that listening isn’t an art should see if they can do it half as well.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“All the world's misfortunes stemmed from the countless untruths, both deliberate and unintentional, which people told because of haste or carelessness.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Er dachte einige Zeit nach. Dann sprach er weiter: "Man darf nie an die ganze Straße auf einmal denken, verstehst du? Man muß nur an den nächsten Schritt denken, an den nächsten Atemzug, an den nächsten Besenstrich. Und immer wieder nur an den nächsten." Wieder hielt er inne und überlegte, ehe er hinzufügte: "Dann macht es Freude; das ist wichtig, dann macht man seine Sache gut. Und so soll es sein.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Si los hombres supiesen lo que es la muerte ya no le tendrían miedo. y si ya no le tuvieran miedo, nadie podría robarles, nunca más, su tiempo de vida.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“You see, Momo,' he [Beppo Roadsweeper] told her one day, 'it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept.'
He gazed silently into space before continuing. 'And then you start to hurry,' he went on. 'You work faster and faster, and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop - and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.'
He pondered a while. Then he said, 'You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.'
Again he paused for thought before adding, 'That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.'
There was another long silence. At last he went on, 'And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. What's more, you aren't out of breath.' He nodded to himself. 'That's important, too,' he concluded.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“But time is life, and life exists in our hearts, and the more of it that the people saved, the less they actually had.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“At certain junctures in the course of existence, unique moments occur when everyone and everything, even the most distant stars, combine to bring about something that could not have happened before and will never happen again. Few people know how to take advantage of these critical moments, unfortunately, and they often pass unnoticed. When someone does recognize them, however, great things happen in the world.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Es gibt Reichtümer, an denen man zugrunde geht, wenn man sie nicht mit anderen teilen kann.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“All the games were selected for them by supervisors and had to have some useful, educational purpose. The children learned these new games but unlearned something else in the process: they forgot to be happy, how to take pleasure in little things and last, but not least, how to dream”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Her feelings of fear and helplessness had reached such a pitch that they were suddenly transformed into their opposites. Having overcome them, she felt corageous and self-confident enough to tackle any power on earth; more precisely, she had ceased to worry about herself.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Siehst Du, Momo", sagte er, "es ist so: Manchmal hat man eine sehr lange Straße vor sich. Man denkt, die ist so schrecklich lang,
die kann man niemals schaffen, denkt man."
Er blickte eine Weile schweigend vor sich hin, dann fuhr er fort:
"Und dann fängt man an, sich zu eilen. Und man eilt sich immer mehr. Jedes Mal, wenn man aufblickt, sieht man, dass es gar nicht weniger wird, was noch vor einem liegt. Und man strengt sich noch mehr an, man kriegt es mit der Angst zu tun, und zum Schluss ist man ganz aus der Puste und kann nicht mehr. Und die Straße liegt immer noch vor einem.
So darf man es nicht machen!"

Er dachte einige Zeit nach. Dann sprach er weiter:
"Man darf nie an die ganze Straße auf einmal denken, verstehst Du? Man muss nur an den nächsten Schritt denken, den nächsten Atemzug, den nächsten Besenstrich. Und immer wieder nur den nächsten."
Wieder hielt er inne und überlegte, ehe er hinzufügte:
"Dann macht es Freude; das ist wichtig, dann macht man seine Sache gut. Und so soll es sein.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“What's so clever about working hard ?" he said to Momo. "Anyone can get rich quick that way, but who wants to look like the people who've sold themselves body and soul for money's sake ? Well, they can count me out. Even if there are times when I don't have the price of a cup of coffee, I'm still me. Guido's still Guido!”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Porque el tiempo es vida, y la vida reside en el corazón. Y cuanto más ahorraba de esto la gente, menos tenía.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Wenn die Menschen wüssten, was der Tod ist, dann hätten sie keine Angst mehr vor ihm.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Es gibt viele Arten von Einsamkeit, aber Momo erlebte eine, die wohl nur wenige Menschen kennengelernt haben, und die wenigsten mit solcher Gewalt.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“In his opinion, all the world’s misfortunes stemmed from the countless untruths, both deliberate and unintentional, which people told because of haste or carelessness.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Nur Momo konnte so lange warten und verstand was er sagte. Sie wußte, daß er sich so viel Zeit nahm, um niemals etwas Unwahres zu sagen. Denn nach seiner Meinung kam alles Unglück der Welt von den vielen Lügen, den absichtlichen, aber auch den unabsichtlichen, die nur aus Eile oder Ungenauigkeit entstehen.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Now, for the first time ever, a story had escaped his control. It had taken on a life of its own, and all the imagination in the world would be insufficient to halt it. He felt numb.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“But there was another thing Momo couldn't quite understand - a thing that hadn't happened until very recently. More and more often these days, children turned up with all kinds of toys you couldn't really play with: remote-controlled tanks that trundled to and fro but did little else, or space rockets that whizzed around on strings but go nowhere, or model robots that waddled along with eyes flashing and heads swiveling but that was all.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“No existe el instante, sólo el pasado o el futuro. Porque ahora, por ejemplo, este instante… cuando hablo de él ya ha pasado.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“there are certain treasures that kill you if you can’t share them with others.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“She felt as if she were imprisoned in a vault heaped with priceless treasures - an ever-growing hoard that threatened to crush the life out of her. There was no way out, either. The vault was impenetrable and she was far too deeply buried beneath a mountain of time to attract anyone's attention.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Time is the very essence of life itself, and life exists in our hearts.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“The professor smiled. “If people knew the nature of death,” he said after a moment’s silence,
“they’d cease to be afraid of it. And if they ceased to be afraid of it, no one could rob them of their time any more.”
― Michael Ende, Momo

“Aslında zaman nedir?…
…belki de hep var olduğu için duyulmayan bir müzik gibidir.”
― Michael Ende, Momo