333 Quotes by Karl Kraus

Life is an effort that deserves a better cause.

Progress, under whose feet the grass mourns and the forest turns into paper from which newspaper plants grow, has subordinated the purpose of life to the means of subsistence and turned us into the nuts and bolts for our tools.

The agitator seizes the world. The artist is seized by it.

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.

You would be surprised how hard it often is to translate an action into thought

Satires which the censor can understand are justly forbidden

Satire that the censor understands is rightly censored.

I saw a poet chase a butterfly in a meadow. He put his net on a bench where a boy sat reading a book. It's a misfortune that it is usually the other way round.

Keep your passions in check, but beware of giving your reason free rein.