Tuesday, March 3:
At breakfast, when we were talking about his wife, R. said to me, “I should know nothing of the reality of my whole former life if I did not have the few operas I wrote then.”
At lunch R. said, “If I had to say something to the Socialists, I should set up these three axioms: (1) there are good people and bad people; (2) the rich man is no happier than the poor man; (3) if you do not have the peasants with you, are not in agreement with them, your whole movement is not worth a cent.”
Walk with the children morning and afternoon. In the evening a telegram from Brandt, also full of vague stipulations; R. very unpleasantly affected by it, says he feels as if everyone is taking him too lightly. Yesterday he wrote to Councilor Diiffl., asking for a quick decision.
Malwida writes; as R. is reading the letter with a somewhat ironic air, I say to him, “You were not always so sharp toward your female friends.” “I did not know any better - and they carry no scars.” I read Freytag and am appalled by his style. “What are our schools for?”
We end the evening with the hymn O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. “It is true, at that time there were no great men, but there were solemn hours,” R. says.