"The escalator seems to me to typify this: It leads us up, by climbing on our behalf. Yes, it doesn't even climb, it flies. Each step carries its shopper aloft, as though afraid he might change his mind. It takes us up to merchandise we might not have bothered to climb an ordinary flight of steps for."

9 likes

Source: Joseph Roth (2002). “The Radetzky March”, p.206, The Overlook Press

About the author

Joseph Roth

Novelist

Joseph Roth was an influential Jewish-Austrian writer known for his poignant explorations of exile and identity, particularly in 'The Radetzky March.'

All quotes by Joseph Roth →

Same author

More quotes by Joseph Roth

See all →
Joseph Roth Novelist

"That was how things were back then. Anything that grew took its time growing, and anything that perished took a long time to be forgotten. But everything that had once existed left its traces, and people lived on memories just as they now live on the ability to forget quickly and emphatically."

Read quote
Joseph Roth Novelist

"I believe that my observations have always led me to find that the so-called realist moves about the world with a closed mind, ringed as it were with concrete and cement, and that the so-called romantic is like an unfenced garden in and out of which truth can wander at will."

Read quote
Joseph Roth Novelist

"Anyway, I am unfitted to hold down a job anywhere unless they were to pay me for getting angry at the world." 96"

Read quote