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Sorrento, August. For two weeks now I haven't heard a German word or understood an Italian one. This way one can manage to live with people everything goes like clockwork and no irksome misunderstanding can arise.

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
People
Week
Weeks
Heard
Arise
Word
Manage
Irksome
Two
Communication
Clockwork
Live
Havens
August
Everything
Haven
Misunderstanding
Way
Understood
German
Like
Goes
Italian

More quotes by Karl Kraus

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When I don't make any progress, it is because I have bumped into the wall of language. Then I draw back with a bloody head. And would like to go on.
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A good stylist should have narcissistic enjoyment as he works. He must be able to objectivize his work to such an extent that he catches himself feeling envious and has to jog his memory to find that he is himself the creator. In short, he must display that highest degree of objectivity which the world calls vanity.
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To have no ideas and being able to express them is the essence of journalism.
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Stupidity gets up early that is why events are accustomed to happening in the morning.
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A weak man has doubts before a decision a strong man has them afterwards.
Karl Kraus
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Many women would like to dream with men without sleeping with them. Someone should point out to them that this is utterly impossible.
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What torture, this life in society! Often someone is obliging enough to offer me a light, and in order to oblige him I have to fish a cigarette out of my pocket.
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Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.
Karl Kraus
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Immortality is the only thing which doesn't tolerate being postponed.
Karl Kraus
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They judge lest they be judged.
Karl Kraus
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Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.
Karl Kraus
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Jealousy is a dog's bark which attracts thieves.
Karl Kraus
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Social reform is the desperate decision to remove corns from a person suffering from cancer.
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Penalties serve to deter those who are not inclined to commit any crimes.
Karl Kraus
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I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.
Karl Kraus
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The little stations are very proud because the expresses have to pass them by.
Karl Kraus
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I would have stage-fright if I had to speak with every one of the people before whom I speak.
Karl Kraus
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The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.
Karl Kraus
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I can say with pride that I have spent days and nights not reading anything, and that with unflagging energy I use every moment toacquire gradually an encyclopedic lack of education.
Karl Kraus
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There is a cultural taste which tries very hard to get rid of the lice in a fur coat. There is another which tolerates the lice and thinks the coat can be worn with them in it. And finally there is a taste which regards the lice as the most important thing about the coat and consequently places the coat at the lice's disposal.
Karl Kraus