Franz Grillparzer Quotes

Without a notion of the transcendental, human beings would, indeed, be animals; however, only fools can be convinced of it, and only degenerates need such a conviction.

What raises great poetry above all else--it is the entire person and also the entire world.

It's actually the spirit helping the spirit; it is the doctor, the bed, the potion.

Why do villains have so much influence? Because the honest people are terribly dense.

Human life, old and young, takes place between hope and remembrance. The young man sees all the gates to his desires open, and the old man remembers--his hopes.

In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.

Pity, but never love bestows kind words upon the slave.

The main reason why men and women make different aesthetic judgments is the fact that the latter, generally incapable of abstraction, only admire what meets their complete approval.

I look around me and nowhere do I see a stamp of disapproval with which nature marked a woman's candid brow.

Praised be the good willing women who understand and take part in the fun--the body is an exacting beater, and even the heart is made of flesh.

Jealousy is a grievous passion that jealously seeks what causes grief.

Although your knowledge is weak and small, you need not be silent: since you cannot be judges be at least witnesses.

Someone who is reluctant to say what he needs to say, often ends up doing so with an insolence whose crassness is proportionate tohis fear, once he gathers the necessary courage.

The German mind, may it live! Almost invisible as a mind, it finally manifests itself assertively as a conviction.

Those who want to row on the ocean of human knowledge do not get far, and the storm drives those out of their course who set sail.

Trousers and the reputation of not being a thief are similar in the following way: There is no particular honor in having them butonce they are lost, everyone thinks they have the right to insult us.

Distinctly different as a child, as an adolescent, in his prime and in his old age, man considers himself as one, not because he acts, but because he knows.

Prose talks and poetry sings.

Love wants to be confirmed with concrete symbols, but recklessness loves instability.

Woman is the crown of all creation, but Man is the head who wears it, and even the servant is master in his house.

Prose and poetry are as different as food and drink.

Mozart starved, but you allow Thalberg and Liszt make tons of gold: Of course, you may think that someone immortal cannot die of hunger

Genius resembles a bell; in order to ring it must be suspended into pure air, and when a foreign body touches it, its joyful toneis silenced.

You say I'm small? I certainly can relate, although it is a matter of perspective. The distance is deceptive, my friend, you standtoo low.

Do old people always live in the past? What yesterday was firm and true, may not be so today.

Transcendence: that which transcends experience.

Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains true to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it.

People of talent resemble a musical instrument more closely than they do a musician. Without outside help, they produce not a single sound, but given even the slightest touch, and a magnificent tune emanates from them.

You even called me stupid in your verse, and I'm almost agreeing, for where stupidity is involved, you are quite an expert, friend.

This searching and doubting and vacillating where nothing is clear but the arrogance of quest. I, too, had such noble ideas when I was still a boy.

A wise man can and should stand above his times, not so the poet, but he should be their apex.

A love that dies has never lived.

Those whom the gods chose as their property must not consort with mortals.

When receiving an order, many servants repeat their "yes" numerous times, especially the lazy ones.

It is fair to despise a cowardly man, but the female sex is strongest when it's weak.

To declaim freedom verses seems like a poem within a poem; freedom requires guns, it requires arms, but no feet.

No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.

Soon there will be nothing truly profound that is not achieved by everyone, and of the difficult things in this world only one will be left: simplicity.

The likeness of the world? A shadow! And world's glory? A dream!

Why do comparisons of words and tone poems (poetry and music) never take into consideration that the word is a mere signifier, but that the sound, aside from being a signifier, is also an object?

Captivating the spirit of the age is a matter of great talent; being swept away by it characterizes an average mind. The two are as different from one another as activity and passivity.

The present is never poetic as it serves necessity, necessity, however, is prosaic.

Let no one say that taking action is hard. Action is aided by courage, by the moment, by impulse, and the hardest thing in the world is making a decision.

The way in which modern German poetry follows theories reminds me of pupils who, scolded by their teacher for their insubordination, justify themselves by saying that they invented new rules of propriety according to which they are quite well- behaved.

I've never been on good terms with God, but now I'm becoming His intimate, for He is truly absolute and extremely legitimate.

Let the will embrace the highest ideals freely and with infinite strength, but let action first take hold of what lies closest.

Once you have looked at the land from atop the Kahlenberg, you will understand what I write and who I am.

Nothing genuinely historical was ever lost in this country. For this reason we have two ruling parties: villains and fools.