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Karl Kraus Quotes
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94 Thought-Provoking and Witty Quotes on Gender, Psychology, Language, Art, and More

Explore the thought-provoking and witty quotes of Karl Kraus, covering topics such as gender, psychology, language, art, and more. Discover the profound insights and unique perspectives of this renowned Austrian writer and satirist.

Karl Kraus was an Austrian satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright, and poet. He directed his satire at the press, German culture, and German and Austrian politics. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Austria-Hungary, he enrolled as a law student at the University of Vienna but later switched to philosophy and German literature before discontinuing his studies. In 1899, he renounced Judaism and founded his own magazine called Die Fackel, through which he launched attacks on various subjects including hypocrisy, psychoanalysis, corruption, nationalism, and more. Kraus's work was published exclusively in Die Fackel, with well-known contributors in its early years before Kraus became the sole author.

Kraus's masterpiece is considered to be the play Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind), a satirical depiction of World War I which combines contemporary documents with apocalyptic fantasy. He also wrote numerous aphorisms which were collected in the book Sprüche und Widersprüche. In addition to his writings, Kraus gave highly influential public readings where he performed readings from various dramas and operettas accompanied by piano. He supported Frank Wedekind in staging Pandora's Box in Vienna in 1904 and was known for his attacks on prominent figures such as Maximilian Harden and Johann Schober.

Despite supporting the Social Democratic Party of Austria during the early 1920s and hoping that Engelbert Dollfuss could prevent Nazism from taking over Austria, Kraus became estranged from some of his followers when he supported Dollfuss's fascist regime. During Hitler's rise to power, Kraus withheld full publication of his satire on Nazi ideology called Die Dritte Walpurgisnacht (The Third Walpurgis Night) out of concern for friends living in Nazi Germany. The last issue of Die Fackel was published in 1936, shortly before Kraus's death. He never married but had a turbulent relationship with Baroness Sidonie Nádherná von Borutín from 1913 until his death. Kraus was baptized Catholic in 1911 but left the Church in 1923 due to disillusionment with its support for the war. He has been portrayed as a critic of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, although some argue that he respected Freud with reservations about the application of his theories.

✵ 28. April 1874 – 12. June 1936
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Karl Kraus: 94   quotes 5   likes

Karl Kraus Quotes

“I trim my opponents to fit my arrows.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“I no longer have collaborators. I used to be envious of them. They repel those readers whom I want to lose myself.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“Today's literature: prescriptions written by patients.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Literature

“Family life is an encroachment on private life.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Life , Family

“The tyranny of necessity grants its slaves three kinds of freedom: opinion free from intellect, entertainment free from art, and orgies free from love.”

Karl Kraus

“In these great times,” Harry Zohn, trans., In These Great Times (Montreal: 1976), p. 74

Love , Art , Freedom

“Most writers have no other quality than the reader: taste. But the latter has the better taste, because he does not write - and the best if he does not read.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Reading

“Lord, forgive them, for they know what they do!”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Forgiveness

“The development of technology will leave only one problem: the infirmity of human nature.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Nature , Problem

“I and my public understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Understanding

“Many share my views with me. But I don't share them with them.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“What is the Ninth Symphony compared to a Tin Pan Alley hit played on a hurdy-gurdy and a memory?”

Karl Kraus Sprüche und Widersprüche

Sprüche und Widersprüche (Dicta and Contradictions)

Memory

“A man's jealousy is a social institution, a woman's prostitution an instinct.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Jealousy

“Nestroy's words ought to apply to an artist and an idea: "I have made a prisoner, and he won't let go of me!"”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Idea

“To be human is erroneous.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long. An aphorism never coincides with the truth: it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths. ”

Karl Kraus
Truth

“How unreliable is the woman caught being faithful! Today she is faithful to you, tomorrow to another.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Faith

“The extraordinary ability of a woman to forget is not the same as the talent of a lady not to be able to remember.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Forgetting

“When the word "peace" was uttered for the first time, there was panic at the stock exchange. They screamed in pain: "We've been earning! Leave us the war! We've earned the war!"”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

War , Peace , Pain , Time

“Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time writing essays.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Time

“It so often happened to me that someone who shared my opinion kept the larger share for himself that I am now forewarned and offer people only ideas.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Idea , People

“Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace.”

Karl Kraus

Beim Wort genommen (1955); as translated by Harry Zohn

Love , Making love , Beauty , Art

“There is no doubt that a dog is loyal. But does that mean we should emulate him? After all, he is loyal to people, not to other dogs.”

Karl Kraus

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Dogs , People