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The masses are only to be regarded as one of three things: either as copies of great personalities, bad copies, clumsily produced in a poor material, or as foils to the great, or finally as their tools

Georg Brandes

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Georg Brandes
Age: 85 †
Born: 1842
Born: February 4
Died: 1927
Died: February 19
Autobiographer
Journalist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Philosopher
University Teacher
Writer
København
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Morris Cohen
Mass
Regarded
Personality
Masses
Either
Copies
Poor
Produced
Three
Finally
Great
Material
Clumsily
Things
Tools
Foils
Materials
Personalities

More quotes by Georg Brandes

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But I did not find any positive inspiration in my studies until I approached my nineteenth year.
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My first experiences of academic friendship made me smile in after years when I looked back on them. But my circle of acquaintances had gradually grown so large that it was only natural new friendships should grow out of it.
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When I was a little boy I did not, of course, trouble much about my appearance.
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Under the dominion of the priests our earth became the ascetic planet a squalid den careering through space, peopled by discontented and arrogant creatures, who were disgusted with life, abhorred their globe as a vale of tears, and who in their envy and hatred of beauty and joy did themselves as much harm as possible.
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Those [Christians] had left to love on earth were then: brothers and sisters in hatred, whom they called then: brothers and sisters in love.
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The Danish glee: the national version of cheerfulness.
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The society of the Culture-Philistines makes life a burden to exceptional men.
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On the whole, the world was friendly. It chiefly depended on whether one were good or not.
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A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion.
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The crowd will follow a leader who marches twenty paces ahead of them, but if he is a thousand paces ahead of them, they will neither see nor follow him.
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I encountered among my comrades the most varied human traits, from frankness to reserve, from goodness, uprightness and kindness, to brutality and baseness.
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Just about this time, when in imagination I was so great a warrior, I had good use in real life for more strength, as I was no longer taken to school by the nurse, but instead had myself to protect my brother, two years my junior.
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Nietzsche says that as soon as he had read a single page of Schopenhauer, he knew he would read every page of him and pay heed to every word, even to the errors he might find. Every intellectual aspirant will be able to name men whom he has read in this way.
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Birth was something that came quite unexpectedly, and afterwards there was one child more in the house.
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The loathing of mankind is a force that surprises and overwhelms one, fed by hundreds of springs concealed his subconsciousness. One only detects its presence after having long entertained it unawares.
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I was not given to looking at life in a rosy light.
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Being gifted needs courage.
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It gradually dawned upon me that there was no one more difficult to please than my mother.
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It is useless to send armies against ideas.
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I was not afraid of what I did not like. To overcome dislike of a thing often satisfied one's feeling of honour.
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