Georg Büchner Quotes

“Murder begins where self-defense ends.”

“You women could make someone fall in love even with a lie.”

“The revolution must end and the republic must begin. In our constitution, right must take the place of duty, welfare that of virtue, and self-defense that of punishment. Everyone must be able to prevail and to live according to one’s own nature.”

“I’ll know how to die with courage; that is easier than living.”

“Revolution is like the daughters of Pelias: it cuts humanity to pieces in order to rejuvenate it.”

“Love is a peculiar thing.”

“How many women does one need to sing the scale of love all the way up and down?”

“One must love humanity in order to reach out into the unique essence of each individual: no one can be too low or too ugly.”

“The life of the wealthy is one long Sunday.”

“Life is God's novel. Let him write it. ”

“The world is chaos. Nothingness is the yet-to-be-born god of the world.”

“Germany is now a field of cadavers, soon she will be a paradise.”

“The power of the people and the power of reason are one.”

“Supreme power rests in the will of all or of the majority.”

“A good man with a good conscience doesn’t walk so fast.”

“People like us are unhappy in this world and in the next, I guess if we made it to heaven, we’d have to help make it thunder.”

“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”

“Whoever finishes a revolution only halfway, digs his own grave.”

“Raise your eyes and count the small gang of your oppressors who are only strong through the blood they suck from you and through your arms which you lend them unwillingly.”

“Your words smell of corpses.”

“We have not made the Revolution, the Revolution has made us.”

“And for tired eyes every light is too bright, and for tired lips every breath too heavy, and for tired ears every word too much.”

“The weapon of the Republic is terror, and virtue is its strength.”

“The strides of humanity are slow, they can only be counted in centuries.”

“Death is the most blessed dream.”

“That is a long word: forever!”

“The statue of Freedom has not been cast yet, the furnace is hot, we can all still burn our fingers.”

“We are only puppets, our strings are being pulled by unknown forces.”

“The state is therefore everyone; the rules within the state are laws which safeguard the welfare of all and which must originate from the welfare of all.”

“Dying people often become childish”

“Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children.”

“There is something beautiful about virtue, Captain. But I am just a poor guy.”

“There are only Epicureans, either crude or refined; Christ was the most refined.”

“We are always on stage, even when we are stabbed in earnest at the end.”

“They say in the grave there is peace, and peace and the grave are one and the same.”

“The sin is in our thoughts.”

“Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”

“The breath of an aristocrat is the death rattle of freedom.”

“Freedom and whores are the most cosmopolitan items under the sun.”