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Quotes by German Authors
"There is an underlying unity in all things."
"Works of Art are of an infinite loneliness."
"The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust."
"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness."
"Here too it's masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind.I grasped a lovely masked procession,And caught things from a horror show, I'd gladly settle for a false impression,If it would last a little longer, though."
"Perhaps he even needs to have been a critic and a sceptic and a dogmatist and an historian, and in addition a poet and collector and traveller and puzzle-solver and moralist and seer and 'free spirit' and nearly all things, so that he can traverse the range of human values and value-feelings and be able to look with many kinds of eyes and consciences from the heights into every distance, from the depths into every height, from the corners into every wide expanse."
"Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offence against both God and his neighbour."
"That which now calls itself democracy differs from older forms of government solely in that it drives with new horses: the streets are still the same old streets, and the wheels are likewise the same old wheels."
"I've learned one thing: you can only really get to know a person after a row. Only then can you judge their true character!"
"The bite of conscience is indecent."
"We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases."
"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please."
"History is not like some individual person, which uses men to achieve its ends. History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends."
"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame."
"Marriage as a long conversation. - When marrying you should ask yourself this question: do you believe you are going to enjoy talking with this woman into your old age? Everything else in a marriage is transitory, but most of the time that you're together will be devoted to conversation."
"The origin of wickedness is the cliff upon which theism, just as much as pantheism, is wrecked; for both imply optimism. However, evil and sin, both in their terrible magnitude, cannot be disavowed; indeed, because of the promised punishments for the latter, the former is only further increased. Whence all this, in a world that is either itself a God or the well-intentioned work of a God?"
"Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost."
"In many cases you are not buying a product but an 'identity enhancer'. Designer labels are primarily collective identities that you buy into. They are expensive and therefore 'exclusive'. If everybody could buy them, they would lose their psychological value and all you would be left with would be their material value, which likely amounts to a fraction of what you paid."
"What is important in life is life, and not the result of life."
"For if we think of this existence of the individual as a larger or smaller room, it becomes clear that most people get to know only one corner of their room, a window seat, a strip of floor which they pace up and down."
"It seems to him there area thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world."
"Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth."
"The accouterments of life were so rich and varied, so elaborated, that almost no place at all was left for life itself. Each and every accessory was so costly and beautiful that it had an existence above and beyond the purpose it was meant to serve " confusing the observer and absorbing attention."
"Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends."
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead and his eyes are dimmed."
"What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man."
"Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object."
"A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations."
"It was a strange business and it made a sad and curious impression on me; everything that had belonged to me in these earlier years of my life left me, was alien and lost to me. I suddenly saw how sad and artificial my life had been during this period, for the loves, friends, habits and pleasures of these years were discarded like badly fitting clothes. I parted from them without pain and all that remained was to wonder that I could have endured them so long."
"Hatred comes from the heart contempt from the head and neither feeling is quite within our control."
"The principal art of the teacher is to awaken the joy in creation and knowledge."
"Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill."
"Out of clutter, find simplicity."
"If you wish to learn from the theoretical physicist anything about the methods which he uses, I would give you the following piece of advice: Don't listen to his words, examine his achievements. For to the discoverer in that field, the constructions of his imagination appear so necessary and so natural that he is apt to treat them not as the creations of his thoughts but as given realities."
"Thus in Christianity the alienation had become total, and it was this total alienation that was the biggest obstacle to the progress of self-consciousness."
"Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest."
"And so the Steppenwolf had two natures, a human and a wolfish one. This was his fate, and it may well be that it was not a very exceptional one. There must have been many men who have had a good deal of the dog or the fox, of the fish or the serpent in them without experiencing any extraordinary difficulties on that account. In such cases, the man and the fish lived on together and neither did the other any harm. The one even helped the other. Many a man indeed has carried this condition to such enviable lengths that he has owed his happiness more to the fox or the ape in him than the man."
"The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others."
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