Quotes from Franz Grillparzer

The real genres: good and bad.

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

Captivating the spirit of the age is a matter of great talent; being swept away by it characterizes an average mind. The two are as different from one another as activity and passivity.

What raises great poetry above all else--it is the entire person and also the entire world.

History is the zoology of the human race.

Why do villains have so much influence? Because the honest people are terribly dense.

Servants honor their master by their service.

How great seems human progress when we consider where it began, and how insignificant, when we contemplate the goals for which itstrives.

Isn't it awful that cold feet make for a cold imagination and that a pair of woollen socks induce good thoughts!

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

Jealousy is a grievous passion that jealously seeks what causes grief.

Since people no longer attend church, theater remains as the only public service, and literature as the only private devotion.

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

The old harlot, German philosophy, has finally turned into a church lady.

The courts used to be, fair and square, the avengers of secular crimes; but nowadays they demand respect even for the criminal.

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

Those who want to row on the ocean of human knowledge do not get far, and the storm drives those out of their course who set sail.

The Germans believe that, no matter where, they can get by on knowledge alone. Art, however, requires skill.

Although your knowledge is weak and small, you need not be silent: since you cannot be judges be at least witnesses.

The first indication of a young person's growing smarter is that he no longer understands the things which he used to consider quite intelligible and self-evident.

Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.

Our poetry emulates the recent progress in military strategy: Our army's strength is the foot soldiers.

Strength, strength alone, is honorable, the German nation clamors in its majesty. But since it is hard to muster strength so suddenly, they have to make do with boorishness.

In order to succeed in a profession, a person not only needs to have its good, but also its bad qualities. The former are the spirit, the latter is the body of the job.