Quotes from Karl Kraus

There are women who are not beautiful but only look that way.

Everything that's created remains as it was before it was created. The artist fetches it down from the heavens as a finished thing. Eternity has no beginning. Poetry or a Joke: the act of creation lies between what's self-evident and what is permanent

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

Hate must make a person productive; otherwise one might as well love.

One must read all writers twice - the good as well as the bad. The one kind will be recognized; the other, unmasked.

Wo nehm ich nur all die Zeit her, so viel nicht zu lesen?

Politics is what a man does in order to conceal what he is and what he himself does not know.

When the sun of culture is low, even dwarves will cast long shadows

Es gibt Menschen, die es zeitlebens einem Bettler nachtragen, daß sie ihm nichts gegeben haben.

Soldiers who don't know what they're fighting for know, nevertheless, what they're not fighting for.

Progress makes purses out of human skin.

Science is spectrum analysis. Art is Photosynthesis.

A "seducer" who boasts of initiating women into the mystery of love is like a stranger who arrives at a railroad station and offers to show the sights to a tourist guide.

There is no more unfortunate creature under the sun than a fetishist who yearns for a woman's shoe and has to settle for the whole woman.

Uma mulher é, às vezes, uma alternativa satisfatória à masturbação. Claro que ela exige muito mais imaginação de nossa parte.

Der Teufel ist ein Optimist, wenn er meint er könnte den Menschen schlechter machen.

Maschinelles Leben fördert, künstlerische Umgebung lähmt die innere Poesie.

Signori, chi ha qualcosa da dire si faccia avanti, e taccia.

I have often been asked to be fair and view a matter from all sides. I did so, hoping something might improve if I viewed all sides of it. But the result was the same. So I went back to viewing things only from one side, which saves me a lot of work and disappointment. For it is comforting to regard something as bad and be able use one's prejudice as an excuse.

Wer Meinungen von sich gibt, darf sich auf Widersprüchen nicht ertappen lassen. Wer Gedanken hat, denkt auch zwischen den Widersprüchen.

Der Aphorismus deckt sich nie mit der Wahrheit; er ist entweder eine halbe Wahrheit oder anderthalb.

There are two kinds of writers. With the first, content and form belong together like soul and body; with the second, they match each other like body and clothes.

War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off.

Das Ãœbel gedeiht nie besser, als wenn ein Ideal davorsteht