Karl Kraus Quotes

• The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Secret

• The world has become uglier since it began to look into a mirror every day; so let us settle for the mirror image and do without an inspection of the original.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in World, Appearance

• In these great times which I knew when they were this small; which will become small again, provided they have time left for it in these times in which things are happening that could not be imagined and in which what can no longer be imagined must happen, for if one could imagine it, it would not happen; in these serious times which have died laughing at the thought that they might become serious; which, surprised by their own tragedy, are reaching for diversion and, catching themselves red-handed, are groping for words… in these times you should not expect any words of my own from me — none but these words which barely manage to prevent silence from being misinterpreted.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Times

• A child learns to discard his ideals, whereas a grown-up never wears out his short pants.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

• Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Learning

• The psychoanalysts pick our dreams as if they were our pockets.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Dreams

• The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people meaner.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• News reports stand up as people, and people wither into editorials. Cliches walk around on two legs while men are having theirs shot off.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• Feminine passion is to masculine as an epic is to an epigram.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Passion

• You would be surprised how hard it often is to translate an action into thought.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Action

• The immorality of men triumphs over the amorality of women.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Women

• A woman occasionally is quite a serviceable substitute for masturbati*n.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Women

• Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in World

• The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Word

• Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Write

• War is, at first, 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.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in War

• Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Stupidity

• Stupidity gets up early; that is why events are accustomed to happening in the morning.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Stupidity

• Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Experience, Wisdom

• Adults who still derive childlike pleasure from hanging gifts of a ready-made education on the Christmas tree of a child waiting outside the door to life do not realize how unreceptive they are making the children to everything that constitutes the true surprise of life.

  Karl Kraus

  Topics in Education

Karl Kraus (78)

Birth:	28th April, 1874
Death:	12th June, 1936
Nationality:	Austrian
Profession:	Writer, Journalist

About

Karl Kraus was an Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright and poet. He is considered the first major European satirist since Jonathan Swift. He directed his satire to the press, German culture, and German and Austrian politics.

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Births

• 1862 - Nicholas Murray Butler
• 1960 - Linford Christie
• 1914 - Sir Alec Guinness
• 1875 - Walter Chrysler
• 1946 - Sue Townsend

Deaths

• 1865 - Richard Cobden
• 1891 - Albert Pike
• 1872 - Samuel Morse
• 2005 - Pope John Paul II
• 2007 - George Sewell