55 Quotes by Hermann Broch

One who hates is a man holding a magnifying-glass, and when he hates someone, he knows precisely that person’s surface, from the soles of his feet all the way up to each hair on the hated head.

Were one merely to seek information, one should inquire of the man who hates, but if one wishes to know what truly is, one better ask the one who loves.

Only falsehood wins renown, not understanding!

If the embodiment of the fundamental idea of our age were to be found in Victorian architecture, in the Church of Cristo Re in Rome or the Church in Brasilia, in Moscow University or the Capitol in Washington, then our age would undoubtedly be called the ‘age of kitsch.’

Incapable of communicating himself to others, incapable of breaking out of his isolation, doomed to remain the mere actor of his life, the deputy of his own ego – all that any human being can know of another is a mere symbol, a symbol of an ego that remains beyond our grasp, possessing no more value than that of a symbol; and all that can be told is the symbol of a symbol, a symbol at a second, third, nth remove, asking for representation in the true double sense of the word.

A gift weighed down with obligations is scarcely a gift.

A man who sacrifices himself must be a decent chap.

As she wanders along the river like this, one hand on her hip and the other clutching a mark to defray her expenses, she is in well-known country.

Do thyself no harm! for we are all here!