Franz Grillparzer Quotes - Page 8

You even called me stupid in your verse, and I'm almost agreeing, for where stupidity is involved, you are quite an expert, friend.

If someone were to think that trees are made to support the sky, they would all seem too short.

If we notice a few errors in the work of a proven master, we may and even will often be correct; if we believe, however, that he is completely and utterly mistaken, we are in danger of missing his entire concept.

Mankind is getting smarter every day. Actually, it only seems so. At least we are making progress. We're progressing, to be sure, ever more deeply into the forest.

It's the misfortune of German authors that not a single one of them dares to expose his true character. Everyone thinks that he has to be better than he is.

When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental — far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.

Why do comparisons of words and tone poems (poetry and music) never take into consideration that the word is a mere signifier, but that the sound, aside from being a signifier, is also an object?

Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power.

No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.

The state has no religion for the simple reason that it has each and everyone.

A man may welcome his beloved with circumstance, but a woman's love and her concern for his well-being are discreet.

Lap-dogs and blood-hounds enjoy the greatest respect at court; house-dogs and no dogs at all are not even considered.

Genius resembles a bell; in order to ring it must be suspended into pure air, and when a foreign body touches it, its joyful toneis silenced.

Never expect any recognition here--the system prohibits it. The cross is not affixed to the genius, no, the genius is affixed to the cross.

From a distance the rushing of the torrent delights and uplifts us, but it rocks us in a flimsy boat, we are overwhelmed by despair. The same applies to danger.

You ardently strive for freedom, and I do wish you were free--but, rather than for your sake, so that government won't be.

Robespierre, this pedant of freedom!

German radicalism: freedom-masturbation.

The noble woman is half a man, even a complete one. Only their imperfections make them women.

Today is, after all, today, but yesterday is of the same substance as tomorrow.

The character of the crowds is made up of mimicry and hostility.

In the long run, only woman remains true to mankind's foremost mission. Whatever she achieves, she achieves through herself, and alone. Man's master is the--public.

It is fair to despise a cowardly man, but the female sex is strongest when it's weak.

Woman is the crown of all creation, but Man is the head who wears it, and even the servant is master in his house.

Distinctly different as a child, as an adolescent, in his prime and in his old age, man considers himself as one, not because he acts, but because he knows.