Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

Quotes

• Many things that I am experiencing I already remember.

• Ask your neighbor only about things you know better yourself. Then his advice could prove valuable.

• To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example? He is loyal to men, not to other dogs.

• Sexual enlightenment is justified insofar as girls cannot learn too soon how children do not come into the world.

• Psychoanalysis is that mental illnes for which it regards itself a therapy.

• What torture, this life in society! Often someone is obliging enough to offer me a light, and in order to oblige him I have to fish a cigarette out of my pocket.

• Chastity always takes its toll. In some it produces pimples; in others, sex laws.

• Solitude would be ideal if you could pick the people to avoid.

• The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.

• How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.

• One's need for loneliness is not satisfied if one sits at a table alone. There must be empty chairs as well.

• Psychoanalysts are father confessors who like to listen to the sins of the father as well.

• The making of a journalist: no ideas and the ability to express them.

• Life is an effort that deserves a better cause.

• I and my public understand each other very well; it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear.

• Where do I find the time for not reading so many books?

• Education is what most receive, many pass on, and few possess.

• A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards.