Death-bed joke (1856), attributed as last words; quoted in French in The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1905) by Sigmund Freud, as translated by Joyce Crick (2003).
Quoted as “Gott wird mir verzeihen, das ist sein Beruf.” in Letzte Worte auf dem Totenbett. Quelle: Alfred Meißner: "Heinrich Heine. Erinnerungen" (1856), Kapitel 5
Variant translation: Why, of course, he will forgive me; that's his business.
As quoted in Heinrich Heine (1937) by Louis Untermeyer
“God will forgive me. It's his job." Heine said this on his deathbed (1856). Hilarious. He must have thought that up years before and counted the seconds to use it.”
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Heinrich Heine 61
German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic 1797–1856Related quotes
Robin Williams: Live on Broadway (2002)
“With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I'll make me a man!”
The Creation, st. 10.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 257
Context: God Himself — His thoughts, His will, His love, His judgments are men's home. To think His thoughts, to choose His will, to judge His judgments, and thus to know that He is in us, with us, is to be at home. And to pass through the valley of the shadow of death is the way home, but only thus, that as all changes have hitherto lead us nearer to this home, the knowledge of God, so this greatest of all outward changes — for it is but an outward change — will surely usher us into a region where there will be fresh possibilities of drawing nigh in heart, soul, and mind to the Father of us all.