Karl Kraus > Quotes

“The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.”
― Karl Kraus

“The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.”
― Karl Kraus

“A weak man has doubts before a decision; a strong man has them afterwards.”
― Karl Kraus

“The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.”
― Karl Kraus

“To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example? He is loyal to man, not to other dogs. ”
― Karl Kraus

“A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful.”
― Karl Kraus

“Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.”
― Karl Kraus

“Life is an effort that deserves a better cause.”
― Karl Kraus

“You don't even live once.”
― Karl Kraus, Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“War: first, one hopes to win;
then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;
in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.”
― Karl Kraus

“How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.”
― Karl Kraus

“A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.”
― Karl Kraus

“Satire that the censor understands is rightly censored.”
― Karl Kraus

“There is no more unhappy being under the sun than a fetishist who pines for a boot and has to content himself with an entire woman.”
― Karl Kraus

“In Berlin, things are serious but not hopeless. In Vienna, they are hopeless but not serious.”
― Karl Kraus

“My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.”
― Karl Kraus, Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“Psychoanalysis is that mental illness for which it regards itself as therapy.”
― Karl Kraus

“Intercourse with a woman is sometimes a satisfactory substitute for masturbation. But it takes a lot of imagination to make it work.”
― Karl Kraus

“I don't like to meddle in my private affairs.”
― Karl Kraus

“The making of a journalist: no ideas and the ability to express them.”
― Karl Kraus

“Heinrich Heine so loosened the corsets of the German language that today every little salesman can fondle her breasts.”
― Karl Kraus

“Jealousy is a dog's bark which attracts thieves.”
― Karl Kraus

“A weak man has doubts before a decision, a stong man has them afterwards.”
― Karl Kraus

“The real end of the world is the destruction of the spirit; the other kind depends on the insignificant attempt to see whether after such a destruction the world can go on.”
― Karl Kraus

“To be perfect, one lacks only a defect.”
― Karl Kraus

“Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence.”
― Karl Kraus

“Ma dove troverò mai il tempo per non leggere tante cose?”
― Karl Kraus

“I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.”
― Karl Kraus

“The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people meaner.”
― Karl Kraus

“How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.”
― Karl Kraus