1874-1936, Austrian Satirist
A child learns to discard his ideals, whereas a grown-up never wears out his short pants.
Karl Kraus – [Children]
A man's eroticism is a woman's sexuality.
Karl Kraus – [Eroticism]
A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.
Karl Kraus – [Writers and Writing]
Adults who still derive childlike pleasure from hanging gifts of a ready-made education on the Christmas tree of a child waiting outside the door to life do not realize how unreceptive they are making the children to everything that constitutes the true surprise of life.
Karl Kraus – [Education]
An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half.
Karl Kraus – [Aphorisms and Epigrams]
Children play soldier. That makes sense. But why do soldiers play children?
Karl Kraus – [Army and Navy]
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 – [Corruption]
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 – [Culture]
Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
Karl Kraus – [Idleness]
Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.
Karl Kraus – [Democracy]
Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life.
Karl Kraus – [Learning]
Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove that they are not idiots.
Karl Kraus – [Education]
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
Karl Kraus – [Wisdom]
He who sleeps half a day has won half a life.
Karl Kraus – [Sleep]
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]
If the reporter has killed our imagination with his truth, he threatens our life with his lies.
Karl Kraus – [Journalism and Journalists]
In these great times which I knew when they were this small; which will become small again, provided they have time left for it in these times in which things are happening that could not be imagined and in which what can no longer be imagined must happen, for if one could imagine it, it would not happen; in these serious times which have died laughing at the thought that they might become serious; which, surprised by their own tragedy, are reaching for diversion and, catching themselves red-handed, are groping for words… in these times you should not expect any words of my own from me — none but these words which barely manage to prevent silence from being misinterpreted.
Karl Kraus – [Modern and Modernism]
Intercourse with a woman is sometimes a satisfactory substitute for masturbation. But it takes a lot of imagination to make it work.
Karl Kraus – [Sex]
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 – [Ideals and Idealism]
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 – [Journalism and Journalists]