Karl Kraus Quotes

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Anesthesia: wounds without pain. Neurasthenia: pain without wounds.

An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half.

One can translate an editorial but not a poem. For one can go across the border naked but not without one's skin; for, unlike clothes, one cannot get a new skin.

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.

Since the day man first tried to conquer space, the earth has been mobilizing.

In these loud times which boom with the horrible symphony of actions which produce reports and of reports which cause actions.

Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.

Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former.

So-called psychoanalysis is the occupation of lustful rationalists who trace everything in the world to sexual causes—with the exception of their occupation.