Karl Kraus Quotes (94 Quotes)


    The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.

    The esthete stands in the same relation to beauty as the pornographer stands to love, and the politician stands to life.

    Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life.

    In these great times which I knew when they were this small which will become small again, provided they have time left for it in these times in which things are happening that could not be imagined and in which what can no longer be imagined must happen,

    When a man is treated like a beast, he says, 'After all, I'm human.' When he behaves like a beast, he says 'After all, I'm only human.'


    Adults who hang gifts of a ready-made education on the Christmas tree of a child waiting outside the door to life do not realize how unreceptive they are making the children to everything that constitutes the true surprise of life.

    Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.

    Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove that they are not idiots.

    Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.

    A fine world in which man reproaches woman with fulfilling his heart's desire!

    A child learns to discard his ideals, whereas a grown-up never wears out his short pants.

    Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former.

    The press, that goiter of the world, swells up with the desire for conquest and bursts with the achievements which every day brings. A week has room for the boldest climax of the human drive for expansion.

    A man's eroticism is a woman's sexuality.

    Stupidity gets up early that is why events are accustomed to happening in the morning.

    It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

    News reports stand up as people, and people wither into editorials. Clichs walk around on two legs while men are having theirs shot off.

    The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he.

    A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful.

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

    Female personality is insubstantiality ennobled by unconsciousness.

    No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist.

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

    Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

    Progress celebrates victories over nature. Progress makes purses out of human skin. When people were traveling in mail coaches, the world got ahead better than it does now that salesmen fly through the air. What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way How will the heirs of this age be taught the most basic motions that are necessary to activate the most complicated machines Nature can rely on progress it will avenge it for the outrage it has perpetrated on it.

    I and life: The case was settled chivalrously. The opponents parted without having made up.

    There are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything.

    Christian morality prefers remorse to precede lust, and then lust not to follow.

    Matrimony is the union of meanness and martyrdom.

    My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious.

    He who does without the praise of the crowd will not deny himself an opportunity to be his own adherent.

    An illusion of depth often occurs if a blockhead is a muddlehead at the same time

    Satires which the censor can understand are justly forbidden

    To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.

    Artists have a right to be modest and a duty to be vain.

    Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.

    Psychoanalysis is that mental illness for which it regards itself as therapy.

    It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.

    Justice is a whore that won't let herself be stiffed, and collects the wages of shame even from the poor.

    Children play soldier. That makes sense. But why do soldiers play children?

    Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

    Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.

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

    Curses on the law! Most of my fellow citizens are the sorry consequences of uncommitted abortions.

    Sex education is legitimate in that girls cannot be taught soon enough how children don't come into the world.

    The discovery of the North Pole is one of those realities which could not be avoided. It is the wages which human perseverance pays itself when it thinks that something is taking too long.

    An aphorism is never exactly true it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

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

    If one reads a newspaper only for information, one does not learn the truth, not even the truth about the paper. The truth is that the newspaper is not a statement of contents but the contents themselves and more than that, it is an instigator.

    Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.


    More Karl Kraus Quotations (Based on Topics)


    World - Life - Man - Journalism - Truth - War & Peace - Abilities - Children - Education - Mind - Woman - People - Art - Work & Career - Love - Desire - Stupidity - Opportunity - Custom & Convention - View All Karl Kraus Quotations

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