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.
- Karl Kraus
Behind, Agreement, Means, Subsistence
The trouble with Germans is not that they fire shells, but that they engrave them with quotations from Kant.
- Karl Kraus
Trouble, Shells, Germans, Quotations
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
- Karl Kraus
Stupidity, Elemental, Which, Earthquake
Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove that they are not idiots.
- Karl Kraus
Education, Wise, Which, Foolish
Christian morality prefers remorse to precede lust, and then lust not to follow.
- Karl Kraus
Christian, Morality, Precede, Lust
My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious.
- Karl Kraus
More, Unconscious, His, Psychologist
Psychoanalysis is that mental illness for which it regards itself as therapy.
- Karl Kraus
Therapy, Which, Itself, Psychoanalysis
When a man is treated like a beast, he says, 'After all, I'm human.' When he behaves like a beast, he says 'After all, I'm only human.'
- Karl Kraus
Beast, Like, Treated, Behaves
Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.
- Karl Kraus
Boredom, Stage, Disease, Secondary
Solitude would be ideal if you could pick the people to avoid.
- Karl Kraus
Ideal, Pick, Would, Solitude
Jealousy is a dog's bark which attracts thieves.
- Karl Kraus
Jealousy, Bark, Which, Attracts
Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.
- Karl Kraus
Ideas, More, Express, Writes
I and life: The case was settled chivalrously. The opponents parted without having made up.
- Karl Kraus
Made, Having, Settled, Parted
If the reporter has killed our imagination with his truth, he threatens our life with his lies.
- Karl Kraus
Truth, Lies, His, Threatens
I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.
- Karl Kraus
Vision, Had, Saw, Encyclopedia
Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.
- Karl Kraus
Someone, Away, His, Aphorism
The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.
- Karl Kraus
Culture, Attention, Mission, Attention Span
I don't like to meddle in my private affairs.
- Karl Kraus
Like, Private, Affairs, Meddle
A child learns to discard his ideals, whereas a grown-up never wears out his short pants.
- Karl Kraus
Never, Discard, His, Whereas
Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
- Karl Kraus
Work, No Time, Makes, Provision
There is no more unfortunate creature under the sun than a fetishist who yearns for a woman's shoe and has to settle for the whole woman.
- Karl Kraus
Woman, More, Unfortunate, Shoe
There are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything.
- Karl Kraus
Never, Given, Having, Beggar
Squeeze human nature into the straitjacket of criminal justice and crime will appear.
- Karl Kraus
Nature, Appear, Squeeze, Criminal
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
- Karl Kraus
Experience, Which, Puts, Miser
How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.
- Karl Kraus
War, Lie, Led, In Print
Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world.
- Karl Kraus
World, Some, Poorly, Repressed
Feminine passion is to masculine as an epic is to an epigram.
- Karl Kraus
Epic, Feminine, Masculine, Epigram
You'd be surprised how hard it can often be to translate an action into an idea.
- Karl Kraus
Action, How, Idea, Surprised
I am already so popular that anyone who vilifies me becomes more popular than I am.
- Karl Kraus
More, Am, Becomes, Popular
The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.
- Karl Kraus
World, Principle, Framework, Lifestyle
Curses on the law! Most of my fellow citizens are the sorry consequences of uncommitted abortions.
- Karl Kraus
Law, Sorry, Most, Curses
A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.
- Karl Kraus
Communication, Someone, Riddle
The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back.
- Karl Kraus
Distance, Looks, Which, Closer
Virginity is the ideal of those who want to deflower.
- Karl Kraus
Want, Ideal, Those, Virginity
Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.
- Karl Kraus
Country, Individual, Might, Corruption
Sex education is legitimate in that girls cannot be taught soon enough how children don't come into the world.
- Karl Kraus
Education, Sex, Come, Legitimate
An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.
- Karl Kraus
Birth, Idea, Catching, Legitimate
Matrimony is the union of meanness and martyrdom.
- Karl Kraus
Union, Matrimony, Meanness, Martyrdom
A fine world in which man reproaches woman with fulfilling his heart's desire!
- Karl Kraus
Woman, World, Which, Fulfilling
To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.
- Karl Kraus
Same, Contempt, Equal, Everywhere
Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.
- Karl Kraus
Art, Light, Synthesis, Analysis
Scandal begins when the police put a stop to it.
- Karl Kraus
Stop, Begins, Scandal, Police
Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.
- Karl Kraus
Opportunity, Everyone, Means, Slave
Children play soldier. That makes sense. But why do soldiers play children?
- Karl Kraus
Children, Play, Soldier, Soldiers
It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.
- Karl Kraus
Loss, New, Itself, Console
No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist.
- Karl Kraus
Communication, Ideas, Journalist
He who does without the praise of the crowd will not deny himself an opportunity to be his own adherent.
- Karl Kraus
Will, Crowd, Deny, Praise
A woman who cannot be ugly is not beautiful.
- Karl Kraus
Beautiful, Woman, Cannot, Ugly
Education is what most receive, many pass on, and few possess.
- Karl Kraus
Education, Most, Receive, Possess
Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say because they write.
- Karl Kraus
Nothing, Say, Because, Journalists
It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.
- Karl Kraus
Better, Means, Does, Express
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