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Quotes by German Authors
"Fight vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the sheep, not against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against the laws and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws with the weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves recognize the tyranny, and understand their own liberty."
"I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength, one has to inquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us."
"What keeps all living things busy and in motion is the striving to exist. But when existence is secured, they do not know what to do: that is why the second thing that sets them in motion is a striving to get rid of the burden of existence, not to feel it any longer, 'to kill time', i.e. to escape boredom."
"If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like."
"In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit."
"Who, if I cried, would hear me among the angelic orders? And even if one of them suddenly pressed me against his heart, I should fade in the strength of his stronger existence. For beauty's nothing but the beginning of terror we're still just able to bear."
"A set is a Many that allows itself to be thought of as a One."
"Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive."
"An action done from duty has its moral worth, not in the purpose to be attained by it, but in the maxim according with which it is decided upon; it depends therefore, not on the realization of the object of action, but solely on the principle of volition in accordance with which, irrespective of all objects of the faculty of desire, the action has been performed."
"New prejudices will serve as well as old ones to harness the great unthinking masses.For this enlightenment, however, nothing is required but freedom, and indeed the most harmless among all the things to which this term can properly be applied. It is the freedom to make public use of one's reason at every point. But I hear on all sides, 'Do not argue!' The Officer says: 'Do not argue but drill!' The tax collector: 'Do not argue but pay!' The cleric: 'Do not argue but believe!' Only one prince in the world says, 'Argue as much as you will, and about what you will, but obey!' Everywhere there is restriction on freedom."
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description."
"Your only problem, perhaps, is that you scream without letting yourself cry."
"Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light."
"The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self."
"There is nothing to be got in the world anywhere; privation and pain pervade it, and boredom lies in wait at every corner for those who have escaped them. Moreover, wickedness usually reigns, and folly does all the talking. Fate is cruel, and human beings are pathetic."
"A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still."
"Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons."
"True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist."
"The word "Christianity" is already a misunderstanding - in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross."
"To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities-I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not-that one endures."
"Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave."
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
"Your educators can only be your liberators."
"The tension has worn us out. It is a deadly tension that feels as if a jagged knife blade is being scraped along the spine. Our legs won't function, our hands are trembling and our bodies are like thin membranes stretched over barely repressed madness, holding in what would otherwise be an unrestrained outburst of endless scream.s. We have no flesh, no muscle now."
"O endure the cross is not tragedy, it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ."
"The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things."
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
"The 'kingdom of Heaven' is a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'upon the earth' or 'after death.'"
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
"A considerable number of persons are able to protect themselves against the outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work."
"Assuming roles is something that simply won't work for me, since I don't have a style. None at all."
"By the will art thou lost, by the will art thou found, by the will art thou free, captive, and bound."
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."
"To write history is so difficult that most historians are forced to make concessions to the technique of legende."
"Only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn't exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship with another person as something alive and will himself sound the depths of his own being."
"All that is transitory is but a metaphor."
"Sensuality often hastens the "Growth of Love" so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up."
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