Kurt Tucholsky Quotes

A country is not only what it does but what it tolerates.

The world isn't purposeful. It isn't ruled by reason. The world wants to play. Fashion queens have always aroused more interest than future generations and their fate.

Revolution! The people howls and cries, Freedom, thats what were needing! Weve needed it for centuries, our arteries are bleeding. The stage is shaking, the audience rock. The whole thing is over by nine oclock.

How wonderful it is, to be silent with someone.

Germany is an anatomical oddity: it writes with its left hand and acts with its right.

You should always pay attentionto quality. A coffin, for instance, should laast a lifetime.

Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire.

Expect nothing. Today: that is your life.

One man's death: that is a catastrophe. A hundred thousand dead: that is a statistic

Each economy relies on the credit system, that is, on the erroneous assumption that the other will pay back money pumped.

Nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to ones time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No!

The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb. The opposite is more difficult.

Language is a weapon, keep it honed!