- Goethe: Oh, no wonder you're so grouchy, if you're going to take Time seriously. There is no Time in Eternity. Only a moment. Just time for a joke!
- [first lines]
- Harry Haller: The day went by just as days go by. I killed it in accordance with my primitive and withdrawn way of life. I worked for an hour or two, had pains, took some opium and lay in a hot bath for two hours. Was glad when the pains consented to disappear. All in all it wasn't exactly a day of rapture. Perhaps the time is come to follow the example of Adalbert Stifter: a fatal accident while shaving...