גמר חתימה טובה

"Der Mensch ist aus Staub gebildet, und er kehrt zum Staube zurück, mit Lebensgefahr erwirbt er sein Brot, gleich einer zerbrochenen Scherbe, trockenem Gras, einer welkenden Blume, vorüberziehendem Schatten, schwindender Wolke, verwehtem Hauch, dahinfliegendem Staube und dem flüchtigen Traume."

Aus dem Unetaneh Tokef von Rabbi Amnon aus Mainz
Cf. Machszor Lejom Rishon Shel Rosh Hashanah. 
Übersetzt von Rabbi Dr. Selig Bamberger. Basel 2001, p. 108sq.

"Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange. The birds are beginning to turn and heading once more toward the South. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves, birds, and animals turning comes instinctively. But for us turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking with old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong; and this is never easy. It means losing face; it means starting all over again; and this is always painful. It means saying: I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways. Lord, help us to turn - from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives, as at the beginning. And turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no life. "

Gates of Forgiveness (Sha'arei Slichah). New York 1980, p. 23-24 

"Thou thyself hast testified the value of repentance: the proof of this we have both from tradition and writings. Repentance is so great [gedolah teshuwah], that it reaches the throne, it is well known high above and on earth; its voice resembles the roaring sea, it repulses decrees, rends asunder the sentences. Repentance is more pleasant (to the Lord) than sacrifice and incense; it tears up the writ and discharges the troublesome debt, it arouses compassion and recalls the merits, its power is great and its vigour effective. It is listed with the six things which preceded the creation, it causes the scattered to be gathered from the ends of the earth; it appeases wrath, it protects like a wall, it beckons kindness and endures throughout the generations."

Rabbi Baruch ben Rabbi Shmuel-Chazak-Ve'emaz. 
Cf. Selichot. Translated and annotated by Rabbi A. Rosenfeld. New York 1978, p. 307.

"Yet of old, he made the Torah and Repentance a pleasant remedy and healing, and an everlasting life, to them that turns from transgression; he mitigated the punishment of his enemies (sinners) and only when the children provoke him (does he punish them) to the third and fourth generation."

Rabbi Jizchak (ben Reuwen Barzeloni?). Cf. Selichot, ibid., p. 309.

G'mar chatimah towah - und zom kal!