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It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

Karl Kraus

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Karl Kraus
Age: 62 †
Born: 1874
Born: March 28
Died: 1936
Died: June 12
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
Jicin
Literature
Means
Doe
Better
Mean
Express

More quotes by Karl Kraus

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A white lie is always pardonable. But he who tells the truth without compulsion merits no leniency.
Karl Kraus
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Speech is the mother, not the handmaid, of thought.
Karl Kraus
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In Berlin, things are serious but not hopeless. In Vienna, they are hopeless but not serious.
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The real end of the world is the destruction of the spirit the other kind depends on the insignificant attempt to see whether after such a destruction the world can go on.
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What the teachers digest, the pupils eat.
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An artist should make concessions to the listener. That is why Bruckner dedicated one of his symphonies to the Good Lord.
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The art of an actress is sublimated sexuality. But off the stage the fire must be able to reconvert the steam into body.
Karl Kraus
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I am not for women but against men.
Karl Kraus
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The unattractive thing about chauvinism is not so much the aversion to other nations as the love of one's own.
Karl Kraus
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The agitator seizes the word. The artist is seized by it.
Karl Kraus
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My request that my writing be read twice has aroused great indignation. Unjustly so. After all, I do not ask that they be read once.
Karl Kraus
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If someone calls me vain and mean, I know that he trusts me and has something to confess to me.
Karl Kraus
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Satire chooses and knows no objects. It arises by fleeing from them and their forcing themselves upon it.
Karl Kraus
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Sound opinions are valueless. What matters is who holds them.
Karl Kraus
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Chastity always takes its toll. In some it produces pimples in others, sex laws.
Karl Kraus
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To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.
Karl Kraus
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Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.
Karl Kraus
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Sentimental irony is a dog that bays at the moon while pissing on graves.
Karl Kraus
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I have drawn from the well of language many a thought which I do not have and which I could not put into words.
Karl Kraus
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A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful.
Karl Kraus