How we cite our quotes: (Preface if applicable, Paragraph)
Quote #1
As for others and the world around him he never ceased in his heroic and earnest endeavor to love them, to be just to them, to do them no harm, for the love of his neighbor was as deeply in him as the hatred of himself, and so his whole life was an example that love of one's neighbor is not possible without love of oneself, and that self-hate is really the same thing as sheer egoism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair. (Preface 22)
Usually we don't equate having low self-esteem with being egocentric, but that seems to be what the narrator is suggesting here. What do you think about the idea that someone who hates him- or herself is actually really self-centered?
Quote #2
I was much astonished that the hermit had his love, and one so young and pretty and elegant; and all my conjectures about him and his life were upset once more. But before an hour had gone he came back alone and dragged himself wearily upstairs with his sad and heavy tread. (Preface 41)
Contrast this lonely scene with the girl-filled romps to come; the isolation Harry feels with his girlfriend Erica is a big contrast to his relationships with Maria and Hermine.
Quote #3
Haller belongs to those who have been caught between two ages, who are outside of all security and simple acquiescence. He belongs to those whose fate it is to live the whole riddle of human destiny heightened to the pitch of a personal torture, a personal hell. (Preface 48)
Harry is living in the past, stuck with his classical music, and just can't figure out how to live in the modern world with its newfangled jazz and radios. Oh, but he'll learn…