340 Quotes by Heinrich Heine

Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.

It is there, where they burn books, that eventually they burn people.

Onde se queimam livros, acaba-se queimando pessoas

Durch die Eisenbahn wird Raum getötet, und es bleibt nur noch die Zeit übrig.

I am no longer a divine biped. I am no longer the freest German after Goethe, as Ruge named me in healthier days. I am no longer the great hero No. 2, who was compared with the grape-crowned Dionysius, whilst my colleague No. 1 enjoyed the title of a Grand Ducal Weimarian Jupiter. I am no longer a joyous, somewhat corpulent Hellenist, laughing cheerfully down upon the melancholy Nazarenes. I am now a poor fatally-ill Jew, an emaciated picture of woe, an unhappy man.

Mark this well, you proud men of action: You are nothing but the unwitting agents of the men of thought who often, in quiet self-effacement, mark out most exactly all your doings in advance.

There are more fools in the world than there are people.

First poems! They must be written on casual scraps of faded paper, interspersed here and there with withered flowers, or a lock of blond hair, or a discolored piece of ribbon, and the trace of a tear must still be visible in several places ... But first poems that are printed, in livid black and white, on dreadfully smooth paper are poems that have lost the finest points of their sweet, virginal charm, and now arouse a ghastly feeling of distaste in the author.

Fatal ist mir das Lumpenpack,Das, um die Herzen zu rühren,Den Patriotismus trägt zur SchauMit allen seinen Geschwüren.