"The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt."
"There is a cultural taste which tries very hard to get rid of the lice in a fur coat. There is another which tolerates the lice and thinks the coat can be worn with them in it. And finally there is a taste which regards the lice as the most important thing about the coat and consequently places the coat at the lice's disposal."
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Source: Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms”
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"Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays."
"Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country."
"I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up."
"The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test."
"An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths."