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Egon Friedell Quotes

God does not rule the world outwardly by gravitation and chemical affinity, but inwardly in the heart of man: as is your soul, so will the destiny be of the world in which you live and do.

God does not rule the world outwardly by gravitation and chemical affinity, but inwardly in the heart of man: as is your soul, so will the destiny be of the world in which you live and do.

Egon Friedell
Heart, Destiny, Men
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.229, Transaction Publishers

Electricity and magnetism are those forces of nature by which people who know nothing about electricity and magnetism can explain everything.

Egon Friedell
People, Vegetarian, Electricity

Art is the subjective, preferential treatment of certain elements of reality; it selects and resets, distributes light and shade, omits and underlines, softens and emphasises.

Egon Friedell
Art, Reality, Light
Egon Friedell (1953). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age: Introduction. book 1. Renaissance and reformation, from the black death to the thirty years' war”

Clothe an idea in words and it loses its freedom of movement.

Egon Friedell
Ideas, Movement, Loses

All knowing that goes beyond the immediate experience of the moment is a matter of faith.

Egon Friedell
Faith, Knowing, Matter
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.88, Transaction Publishers

The highest, the only reality, is ever at hand, but for the most part invisible. Genius makes it visible.

Egon Friedell
Reality, Hands, Genius
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.229, Transaction Publishers

The artist's view of the world and mankind is that which seeks as far as possible to lose itself in its object, illuminating it not from the outside by some light foreign to it, but from within, deriving light from its own core.

Egon Friedell
Artist, Light, Views
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.34, Transaction Publishers

We can never see the world other than incompletely: deliberately to see it as incomplete is to create an artistic aspect.

Egon Friedell
World, Artistic, Aspect
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.15, Transaction Publishers

Artists of all sorts remain youthful for so long, and in many cases attain a grand old age. The explanation is that they live in an almost permanent condition of stimulation and excitement.

Egon Friedell
Artist, Long, Age
Egon Friedell (2008). “A Cultural History of the Modern Age Vol. 1: Renaissance and Reformation”, p.60, Transaction Publishers

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