Quote

An aphorism is never exactly true it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

Karl Kraus

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Karl Kraus
Age: 62 †
Born: 1874
Born: March 28
Died: 1936
Died: June 12
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
Jicin
Truths
Exactly
Either
Half
True
Truth
Never
Aphorism

More quotes by Karl Kraus

Image
One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long.
Karl Kraus
Image
Talent is often a defect in character.
Karl Kraus
Image
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
Karl Kraus
Image
That an author takes a bow is not humility but presumption. What does the paleface want on the stage afterwards? But before the performance he had even less business there--and paying him royalties is equivalent to cheating the actors.
Karl Kraus
Image
In a well-run mental household there ought to be a thorough cleaning at the threshold of consciousness a few times a year.
Karl Kraus
Image
A woman occasionally is quite a serviceable substitute for masturbation.
Karl Kraus
Image
Through my satire I make little people so big that afterwards they are worthy objects of my satire and no one can reproach me any longer.
Karl Kraus
Image
Speech is the mother, not the handmaid, of thought.
Karl Kraus
Image
Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue its secondary stage, boredom its tertiary stage, syphilis.
Karl Kraus
Image
Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.
Karl Kraus
Image
The extraordinary ability of a woman to forget is not the same as the talent of a lady not to be able to remember.
Karl Kraus
Image
The triumph of morality: A thief who has broken into a bedroom claims his sense of shame had been outraged, and by threatening theoccupants with exposure of an immoral act he blackmails them into not bringing charges for burglary.
Karl Kraus
Image
When I want to go to sleep, I must first get a whole menagerie of voices to shut up. You wouldn't believe what a racket they make in my room.
Karl Kraus
Image
It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.
Karl Kraus
Image
Satires which the censor can understand are justly forbidden
Karl Kraus
Image
Not greeting people isn't enough. One also doesn't greet people one doesn't know.
Karl Kraus
Image
In the theater one must sit in such a way that one sees the audience as a dark mass. Then it cannot bother one more than it does an actor. Nothing is more disturbing than being able to distinguish individuals in the crowd.
Karl Kraus
Image
Contemporaries live from second hand to mouth.
Karl Kraus
Image
Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say because they write.
Karl Kraus
Image
In case of doubt, decide in favor of what is correct.
Karl Kraus