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Quotes by German Authors
"Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual."
"If you take a lie and allow your desire for the truth, you'll end up with some truth - not fact, but something that gets you closer to the truth. That's what we want. When we go to a play, we need to be assured that the experience we're having."
"We are not permitted to linger, even with what is most intimate. From images that are full, the spirit plunges on to others that suddenly must be filled; there are no lakes till eternity. Here, falling is best. To fall from the mastered emotion into the guessed-at, and onward."
"Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible."
"Common participation in the Eucharist can only be a final outcome of ecumenic dialogue, not the starting point."
"An autobiography is not about pictures; it's about the stories; it's about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people's privacy."
"My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art."
"Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers about radio transmission."
"If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context."
"Let us show our fellow countrymen and the entire world what the Germans can do when they work for peace."
"The problem was the journalists who also did not understand much of my music, but they wrote about it. I think you fell into the usual trap laid out by parts of the press and other writers: that the poor musician has always to fight the evil companies and managers."
"The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character."
"The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it is merely a fact that all men sin does not basically affect the problem of suffering."
"Man goes far away or near but God never goes far-off; he is always standing close at hand, and even if he cannot stay within he goes no further than the door."
"The history of nations shows that words are not always immediately followed by action."
"It is a question whether, when we break a murderer on the wheel, we do not fall into the error a child makes when it hits the chair it has bumped into."
"I forced myself to think what is the new concept and it became clear to me that it was risk, not only in technology and ecology, but in life and employment, too."
"Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like."
"We must also win really sufficient and, above all, practical, guarantees for the freedom of the seas and for the further fulfilment of our economic and political tasks throughout the world."
"For when it is the good that is under consideration, and the ethical object is predominant, truth must be considered more in reference to art than science, if, that is, unity is to be preserved in the work generally."
"I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general."
"For in 1900 all electromagnetic radiation of longer wavelengths was already known at least to the extent that one could not seek in it the more striking characteristics of X-rays such as, for example, the strong penetrating power."
"You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all."
"What good to me is the festive garment of freedom when I am in a slave's smock at home?"
"From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization."
"After the many rumours that we had heard about Hitler and the published criticisms we had read about him, we were pleasantly impressed. His appearance was neither pretentious nor affected."
"Any movie that has that spirit and says things can be changed is worth making."
"The artist is not responsible to any one. His social role is asocial... his only responsibility consists in an attitude to the work he does."
"I considered that the homes that people live in exactly describe their lives."
"The difference between religion and morality lies simply in the classical division of things into the divine and the human, if one only interprets this correctly."
"The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday."
"Let there be great enthusiasm for the plan throughout the entire republic that will overcome all obstacles. Let us join together to realize the Five Year Plan and bring our economy and our own living standards to previously unknown heights."
"Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied."
"Nothing is more misleading to the youth of a nation than to state the outcome immediately after the beginning as if nothing could have taken place in between."
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