Jo Franz Quotes

Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power.

I'd wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.

My anger thought you too ignoble for my love, and close examination finds you too magnificent, and only equals are joined together smoothly.

Since people no longer attend church, theater remains as the only public service, and literature as the only private devotion.

Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains true to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it.

The present is never poetic as it serves necessity, necessity, however, is prosaic.

How frightening it is to have reached the height of human accomplishment in art that must forever borrow from life's abundance.

The German mind, may it live! Almost invisible as a mind, it finally manifests itself assertively as a conviction.

Swear words and profanities are mere abbreviations of speech, similar to the abbreviations in writing.

The state has no religion for the simple reason that it has each and everyone.

The spirit of poetry combines the profundity of the philosopher and the child's delight in bright pictures.

Historical! Must it be historical to catch your attention? Even though historicity, like notoriety, denotes nothing more than thatsomething has occurred.

The old harlot, German philosophy, has finally turned into a church lady.

Women, children, Tyroleans and preachers want to create a new kingdom of God, but the God of their kingdom looks like women, children, preachers, and Tyrolians.

A flutist who is moved to tears by his own performance will soon make the listeners laugh because of the sounds that he produces.

Much as I honor the wisdom of the princess--there is something more dashing about a man.

Love! Hate! Is there no third?

The real genres: good and bad.

Do hurry and proclaim the concordat. Then castrate yourselves to keep from sinning.

As far as the arts and the sciences are concerned, the German mind appreciates most highly that which it does not understand of the latter, and that which it does not enjoy of the former.

Art compares to nature like wine to the grape.

Bunglers and pedants judge art according to genre; they approve of this and dismiss that genre, but instead of genres, the open-minded connoisseur appreciates only individual works.

The art of acting presupposes three phases: understanding a part, intuiting a part, and contemplating the essence of a part.

Caution is the daughter of circumspection, but she tends to outgrow her mother.

The ramparts of Vienna are crumbling into the sand; no one wants to live so confined, however, the entire country is already surrounded by a Chinese wall!

Perhaps the most embarrassing experience is being caught at a lie by a simpleton who sneers at our asinine cleverness.

To enlist the support of the people and of parliament, you only have to propose a profitable villainy.

Praised be the good willing women who understand and take part in the fun--the body is an exacting beater, and even the heart is made of flesh.

Man will return to his origins. Goethe has finally become as squiggly as the city of his fathers.

Strength, strength alone, is honorable, the German nation clamors in its majesty. But since it is hard to muster strength so suddenly, they have to make do with boorishness.

When receiving an order, many servants repeat their "yes" numerous times, especially the lazy ones.

Dilettantes appreciate the work, professors the master at the same time.

Finally and long overdue, your people, oppressed and disgraced by hatred and maliciousness, have achieved justice: now you enjoy full citizen's rights, but you'll remain Jews nonetheless.

German diligence is actually endurance.

In the arts, foolhardiness is always harmful; even worse, however, is clumsiness.

North and West have always vied for power and territory, but their recent competition as to which one is more insidious of the twohas been more peaceful.

I understand the phrase "Honor the Women" all too well: the poet has probably a wife of his own, but he prefers to honor another.

The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.

Trousers and the reputation of not being a thief are similar in the following way: There is no particular honor in having them butonce they are lost, everyone thinks they have the right to insult us.

There is one privilege we'll never lose; currently it's called nationality. It means that everyone was born somewhere, which is infact self-evident.

Compilers resemble gluttonous eaters who devour excessive quantities of healthy food just to excrete them as refuse.

They are miserly, the princes of Austria, you need not grieve about it; they may not donate anything, but they allow themselves tobe fleeced, the good lords.

Do not push so fast ahead, do slow down a bit! Otherwise you won't catch up with yourselves.

Only by himself, with one acre and a house, will a dunce be a dunce. Once he manages to gain power, he'll turn into a scoundrel.

Profundity easily turns into dullness and astuteness deteriorates into wit. Be guided by natural common sense and it will accommodate great and small.

Transcendence: that which transcends experience.

How can you say that love is blind? Keener than a young eagle's is its sight.

A man may welcome his beloved with circumstance, but a woman's love and her concern for his well-being are discreet.

Genius resembles a bell; in order to ring it must be suspended into pure air, and when a foreign body touches it, its joyful toneis silenced.

From a distance the rushing of the torrent delights and uplifts us, but it rocks us in a flimsy boat, we are overwhelmed by despair. The same applies to danger.