Quotes from Franz Grillparzer

What a pathetic creature is man! His senses are awakened by the hope for the very thing whose consummation puts him to sleep.

Moons and years pass by and are gone forever, but a beautiful moment shimmers through life a ray of light.

When the theater gates open, a mob pours inside, and it is the poet's task to turn it into an audience.

In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.

A pious woman's neighbor, a philanthropist's child, a liberal's servant--these three have a hard life.

This searching and doubting and vacillating where nothing is clear but the arrogance of quest. I, too, had such noble ideas when I was still a boy.

Ideas are not thoughts; the thought respects the boundaries that the idea ignores thereby failing to realize itself.

Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.

I notice well that one stray step from the habitual path leads irresistibly into a new direction. Life moves forward, it never reverses its course.

If someone took the finest marble and knew how to shape it artfully: Prometheus' material was lowly clay, but his statues walked.

Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains true to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it.

How frightening it is to have reached the height of human accomplishment in art that must forever borrow from life's abundance.

A person who looks different all the time frightens me. Only one animal changes its skin: the snake.

When receiving an order, many servants repeat their "yes" numerous times, especially the lazy ones.

I love the pride whose measure is its own eminence and not the insignificance of someone else.

A book is quite a beautiful thing, even more so learning. Together, however, all they amount to is called book-learning.

Is it true that one travels in order to know mankind? It is easier to get to know other people at home, but abroad one gets to know oneself.

Whoever places his trust into a system will soon be without a home. While you are building your third story, the two lower ones have already been dismantled.

Since love is folly, a foolish woman is more dangerous than a wise one.

Gold schenkt die Eitelkeit, der rauhe Stolz, Die Freundschaft und die Liebe schenken Blumen. Gold is the gift of vanityand pride, Friendship and love offer flowers.

Gold is the gift of vanity and common pride, but flowers are the gift of love and friendship.

No one will stop to help you when you are in need, but everyone forces opinions upon you that you do not require.

Without a notion of the transcendental, human beings would, indeed, be animals; however, only fools can be convinced of it, and only degenerates need such a conviction.

Do old people always live in the past? What yesterday was firm and true, may not be so today.