33 Quotes by Lion Feuchtwanger

Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers about radio transmission.

I should add that it is open to debate whether what we call the writing of history these days is truly scientific.

Like the philosopher, the author views his task as one of establishing a clear connection between life and history, and of making the past bear fruit for the present and future.

It is only the strong who are strengthened by suffering; the weak are made weaker.

An action doesn’t have to be wrong just because it is not logical. It doesn’t have to be right just because it has its logic.

There’s only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there’s no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

I am always thinking of that remark of Theodor Lessing, which I quoted earlier in this book, that history is “the art of giving meaning to the meaningless.

Had I not been thinking always of the ludicrous aspects of my own plight, or of the plight of others, I could not have survived that depressing, degrading experience without spiritual harm.

I am a slow worker, but I could have written at least two books more in the time that I have been obliged to spend waiting around public offices and in the back yards of recruiting stations – waiting unnecessarily for unnecessary things.