Multatuli Quotes

“One must live with all, e'en if life be hell: Crime makes shame, not monetary stricture”

Multatuli book Max Havelaar

Multatuli, Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

“The entire morality of the world could be summarized in the words, do as others do.”

Multatuli

Multatuli, The Oyster and the Eagle: Selected Aphorisms and Parables

“Since I have the obligation to take care of the needs of my family, I have decided to use a talent which, I believe, has been given to me. I am a poet… Phew! You know, reader, what I and all sensible people think about that.”

Multatuli book Max Havelaar

Multatuli, Max Havelaar, Ch. 3, p. 44

“Maybe nothing is completely true, and not even that.”

Multatuli

Multatuli, Ideeën

“I would like to meet myself sometime to see how I would look to myself. But I'd have to be in an extremely good state of mind on such a day, because I don't like unpleasantness.”

Multatuli

Multatuli, The Oyster and the Eagle: Selected Aphorisms and Parables