Franz Grillparzer Quotations | Page 2

Bunglers and pedants judge art according to genre; they approve of this and dismiss that genre, but instead of genres, the open-minded connoisseur appreciates only individual works.

Feeling and thinking are actually the blind man who carries the lame.

Swear words and profanities are mere abbreviations of speech, similar to the abbreviations in writing.

I would love to be able to write a tragedy in my imagination--it would turn into a masterpiece.

Distinctly different as a child, as an adolescent, in his prime and in his old age, man considers himself as one, not because he acts, but because he knows.

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.

In Germany, a certain artistic sense is fairly common, but the artist's sense is foreign there.

The Germans believe that, no matter where, they can get by on knowledge alone. Art, however, requires skill.

Art compares to nature like wine to the grape.

You say I'm small? I certainly can relate, although it is a matter of perspective. The distance is deceptive, my friend, you standtoo low.

Today is, after all, today, but yesterday is of the same substance as tomorrow.

The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.

The military and the clergy cause us much annoyance; the clergy and the military, they empty our wallets and rob our intelligence.

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

In order to succeed in a profession, a person not only needs to have its good, but also its bad qualities. The former are the spirit, the latter is the body of the job.

The ramparts of Vienna are crumbling into the sand; no one wants to live so confined, however, the entire country is already surrounded by a Chinese wall!

Even with limited intelligence, knowing oneself is not as difficult as some say, but to act according to what one has realized about oneself in real life is as difficult as practicing anything else, compared to theory.

Trying to conceal a crime is like burying a seed in the ground.

Schiller moves upward. Goethe comes from up above.

Man will return to his origins. Goethe has finally become as squiggly as the city of his fathers.

Strength, strength alone, is honorable, the German nation clamors in its majesty. But since it is hard to muster strength so suddenly, they have to make do with boorishness.

Disregard for the consequences and for right and wrong nowadays passes as energy.

There is one privilege we'll never lose; currently it's called nationality. It means that everyone was born somewhere, which is infact self-evident.

You can make the best of it and be content, or you can complain, it makes no difference. What does it matter that human beings judge the things that exist?

In the arts, foolhardiness is always harmful; even worse, however, is clumsiness.

Praised be the good willing women who understand and take part in the fun--the body is an exacting beater, and even the heart is made of flesh.

Soon there will be nothing truly profound that is not achieved by everyone, and of the difficult things in this world only one will be left: simplicity.

A cure by regression is homeopathic, like healing the damage done by ministers and ignorance with stupidity and Jesuits.

I understand the phrase "Honor the Women" all too well: the poet has probably a wife of his own, but he prefers to honor another.

Servants honor their master by their service.

Trousers and the reputation of not being a thief are similar in the following way: There is no particular honor in having them butonce they are lost, everyone thinks they have the right to insult us.

A heart that overflows may seek out merrymaking and boisterous festivities to quietly rejoice, unnoticed amidst the reveling crowds.

Just as the queen bee, the highest-ranking, peerless creature of her hive, is surrounded by lowly drones to please her, whereas the workers produce honey, the same way is the one who sits on the throne an equal only to himself, and no one's companion.

Who could deny that our Austria is richer than any other country? As the saying goes: "We have money like manure.

Many said selfishness was the flaw of our modern age; but then self-conceit emerged from a corner of the deepest hell to join selfishness.

Do you call the jewel blind, because your eye is?

The prince exults whomever he selects as his consort, but the queen, rather than elevating the subject of her choice, humiliates him as a man. By all that is right, a man is not intended to be the husband of his wife, but a woman is to be her husband's wife.

Woman is the crown of all creation, but Man is the head who wears it, and even the servant is master in his house.

It is fair to despise a cowardly man, but the female sex is strongest when it's weak.

The character of the crowds is made up of mimicry and hostility.

In the long run, only woman remains true to mankind's foremost mission. Whatever she achieves, she achieves through herself, and alone. Man's master is the--public.

The likeness of the world? A shadow! And world's glory? A dream!

The graceful flowers of innocence are more valuable than the laurel crown of fame.

What is done for the children is doubly beneficial, since their success, obvious to everyone, educates the parents as well.

Jealousy is a grievous passion that jealously seeks what causes grief.

Turning popular opinion upside down does not make an original.

It is good insofar as it is not evil.

It is not a matter of desire, but of coercion and duty.

Why do villains have so much influence? Because the honest people are terribly dense.

Whoever considers morality the main objective of human existence, seems to me like a person who defines the purpose of a clock asnot going wrong. The first objective for a clock, is, however, that it does run; not going wrong is an additional regulative function. If not a watch's greatest accomplishment were not going wrong, unwound watches might be the best.

Grief, first take on shape! what is shapeless causes fear and torment but when the enemy materializes, half the victory is won.

Gratitude is a fickle thing, indeed. A person taking aim presses the weapon to his chest and cheek, but when he hits, he discardsit with indifference.

Chance arrives unannounced. It emerges, and when it leaves, we are lucky if the changes it has produced are only external.

I've never been on good terms with God, but now I'm becoming His intimate, for He is truly absolute and extremely legitimate.

Prose talks and poetry sings.

My anger thought you too ignoble for my love, and close examination finds you too magnificent, and only equals are joined together smoothly.

I'd wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.

Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power.

Why do comparisons of words and tone poems (poetry and music) never take into consideration that the word is a mere signifier, but that the sound, aside from being a signifier, is also an object?

Human life, old and young, takes place between hope and remembrance. The young man sees all the gates to his desires open, and the old man remembers--his hopes.

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.

Es binden Sklavenfesseln nur die H a« nde, Der Sinn, er macht den Freien und den Knecht. The chains of slavery can only bind the hands. The mind makes us either free or enslaved.

To enlist the support of the people and of parliament, you only have to propose a profitable villainy.

Art is eternally young, but the poet ages. If only he remained as young as art! If only it aged with him!

The cradle of the future is the grave of the past.

Freedom requires guns.

No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.

German diligence is actually endurance.

Two soldiers and a villain are enough to blow up the rights of the citizens.

Perhaps the most embarrassing experience is being caught at a lie by a simpleton who sneers at our asinine cleverness.

When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental—far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.

I cannot be exacting because I respect myself.

Mozart starved, but you allow Thalberg and Liszt make tons of gold: Of course, you may think that someone immortal cannot die of hunger

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

Once you have looked at the land from atop the Kahlenberg, you will understand what I write and who I am.

Caution is the daughter of circumspection, but she tends to outgrow her mother.

North and West have always vied for power and territory, but their recent competition as to which one is more insidious of the twohas been more peaceful.

What raises great poetry above all else--it is the entire person and also the entire world.

Austrian soldiers are like horses: brave but easily frightened.

The German mind, may it live! Almost invisible as a mind, it finally manifests itself assertively as a conviction.

Isn't it awful that cold feet make for a cold imagination and that a pair of woollen socks induce good thoughts!

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

In certain countries, people seem to be think that three asses together make one intelligent person. However, that is completely wrong. Several asses in concreto make the ass in abstracto and that is a most terrifying animal.

The thing that pleases is not always good and, helas, the good thing does not always please.

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.

Man lives two lives, woe, were it otherwise! One is seized by death, the other one, his honor, remains.

Historical! Must it be historical to catch your attention? Even though historicity, like notoriety, denotes nothing more than thatsomething has occurred.

Right and proof are two crutches for everything bent and crooked that limps along.

Only by himself, with one acre and a house, will a dunce be a dunce. Once he manages to gain power, he'll turn into a scoundrel.

Piety is the fermentation of the forming mind and the putrefaction of the disintegrating one.

It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.

He who takes people for smart pays an expensive lesson.

Finally and long overdue, your people, oppressed and disgraced by hatred and maliciousness, have achieved justice: now you enjoy full citizen's rights, but you'll remain Jews nonetheless.

The courts used to be, fair and square, the avengers of secular crimes; but nowadays they demand respect even for the criminal.

Compilers resemble gluttonous eaters who devour excessive quantities of healthy food just to excrete them as refuse.

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

The art of acting presupposes three phases: understanding a part, intuiting a part, and contemplating the essence of a part.

Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills.

At certain times, men regard poetry merely as a bright flame, but to women it was, and always will be, a warm fire.

Our poetry emulates the recent progress in military strategy: Our army's strength is the foot soldiers.