Georg Büchner citations

“The stars are scattered all over the sky like shimmering tears, there must be great pain in the eye from which they trickled.”

“Murder begins where self-defense ends.”

“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.”

“Government must be a transparent garment which tightly clings to the people’s body.”

“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.”

“The death clock is ticking slowly in our breast, and each drop of blood measures its time, and our life is a lingering fever.”

“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.”

“Do you know, Valerio, that even the least among all humans is so great that life is far too short to love him?”

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

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

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

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

“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.”