Karl Kraus Quotes

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

"Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country."

"A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful."

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

"Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis."

"The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span."

"Virginity is the ideal of those who want to deflower."

"No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist."

"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer."

"Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former."

"Christian morality prefers remorse to precede lust, and then lust not to follow."

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

"How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print."

"The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test."

"A fine world in which man reproaches woman with fulfilling his heart's desire!"

"Scandal begins when the police put a stop to it."

"I am already so popular that anyone who vilifies me becomes more popular than I am."

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

"My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious."

"Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say because they write."

"It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new."

"There are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything."

"I don't like to meddle in my private affairs."

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

"Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes."

"Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave."

"You'd be surprised how hard it can often be to translate an action into an idea."

"Matrimony is the union of meanness and martyrdom."

"Education is what most receive, many pass on, and few possess."

"Children play soldier. That makes sense. But why do soldiers play children?"