Quote collection
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"Whenever the truth is uncovered, the artist will always cling with rapt gaze to what still remains covering even after such uncovering; but the theoretical man enjoys and finds satisfaction in the discarded covering and finds the highest object of his pleasure in the process of an ever happy uncovering that succeeds through his own efforts."
"Ultimately, no one can extract from things, books included, more than he already knows."
"Every word instantly becomes a concept precisely insofar as it is not supposed to serve as a reminder of the unique and entirely individual original experience to which it owes its origin; but rather, a word becomes a concept insofar as it simultaneously has to fit countless more or less similar cases -- which means, purely and simply, cases which are never equal and thus altogether unequal."
"No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men."
"Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator."
"Man demands truth and fulfills this demand in moral intercourse with other men; this is the basis of all social life. One anticipates the unpleasant consequences of reciprocal lying. From this there arises the duty of truth. We permit epic poets to lie because we expect no detrimental consequences in this case. Thus the lie is permitted where it is considered something pleasant. Assuming that it does no harm, the lie is beautiful and charming."
"As far as Germany extends it ruins culture."
"Those who are slow to know suppose that slowness is the essence of knowledge."
"To discover he is loved in return ought really to disenchant the lover with the beloved."
"All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity."
"When we cannot stand certain people, we try to have suspicions about them."
"It is inhuman to bless where one is cursed."
"The quality of a marriage is proven by its ability to tolerate an occasional "exception."
"The most welcome joke to me is the one that takes the place of a heavy, not altogether innocuous thought, at once a cautionary hint of the finger and a flash of the eye."
"In our interactions with people, a benevolent hypocrisy is frequently required--acting as though we do not see through the motivesof their actions."
"Where the past is venerated the clean and those who clean things up should be kept out. Piety is never happy without a little dust, dirt, and rubbish."
"What a person is begins to betray itself when his talent weakens--when he stops showing what he can do. Talent, too, is ornamentation, and ornamentation, too, is a hiding place."
"It is doubtful whether anyone who has travelled widely has found anywhere in the world regions more ugly than in the human face."
"Loving and perishing: it's been a rhyme all these eternities. The will to love: that is, also being willing to die."
"Just as soon as we notice that someone has to force himself to pay attention when dealing and talking with us, we have a valid demonstration that he does not love us or that he does not love us anymore."