Heinrich Heine Quotes (63 Quotes)

The foolish race of mankind are swarming below in the night they shriek and rage and quarrel -- and all of them are right.

Das war ein vorspeil nur That was only a prelude dort wo man Buecher verbrennt, Where one burns books, vebrennt man auch am Ende One will also burn people Menchen. Eventually.

God will pardon me, it is His trade.

Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.

Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one's nose.

God will forgive me. It's his job. Dieu me pardonnera. C'est son m tier.

It must require an inordinate share of vanity and presumption, too, after enjoying so much that is good and beautiful on earth, to ask the Lord for immortality in addition to it all

The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough.

The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.

He only profits from praise who values criticism.

Communism possesses a language which every people can understand - its elements are hunger, envy, and death.

Society is a republic. When an individual endeavors to lift himself above his fellows, he is dragged down by the mass, either by means of ridicule or of calumny. No one shall be more virtuous or more intellectually gifted than others. Whoever, by the irresistable force of genius, rises above the common herd is certain to be ostracized by society, which will pursue him with such merciless derision and detraction that at last he will be compelled to retreat into the solitude of his thoughts.

Like a great poet, Nature knows how to produce the greatest effects with the most limited means.

I do not know if she was virtuous, but she was ugly, and with a woman that is half the battle.

It is a common phenomenon that just the prettiest girls find it so difficult to get a man.

I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.

It is an ancient story Yet is it ever new.

One should forgive ones enemies, but not before they are hanged.

Christ rode on an ass, but now asses ride on Christ.

There are more fools in the world than there are people.

Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle.

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

Whenever books are burned, men also in the end are burned.

Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born is of course the miracle.

Atheism is the last word of theism.

You cannot feed the hungry on statistics.

Whether a revolution succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.

I do not murmur, even if my heart break.

Woman is at once apple and serpent.

God will forgive me. It's his job.

Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of Saint John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comp

God will forgive me; that's his business.

I have a most peaceable disposition. My desires are for a modest hut, a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, very fresh milk and butter, flowers in front of my window and a few pretty trees by my door. And should the good Lord wish to make me really happy, he will allow me the pleasure of seeing about six or seven of my enemies hanged upon those trees.

What Christian love cannot do is effected by a common hatred

I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day.

The weather-cock on the church spire, though made of iron, would soon be broken by the storm-wind if it... did not understand the noble art of turning to every wind.

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.

In politics, as in life, we must above all things wish only for the attainable.

The music at a wedding procession always reminds me of the music of soldiers going into battle

Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men, and rocks them up to manhood and this meager foster-mother remains their faithful companion throughout life

Genius 1. to believe your own thought. To believe that what is true for you is ultimately true. 2. a sledgehammer. 3. the fruit of labour and thought. 4. soul. 5. the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. 6. something one can become.

It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of - another Jew?

I have never seen an ass who talked like a human being, but I have met many human beings who talked like asses.

In earlier religions the spirit of the time was expressed through the individual and confirmed by miracles. In modern religions the spirit is expressed through the many and confirmed by reason.

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.

While we are indifferent to our good qualities, we keep on deceiving ourselves in regard to our faults, until we come to look on them as virtues.

Oh, what lies there are in kisses.

The Wedding March always reminds me of the music played when soldiers go into battle.

Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.