German Author Quotes

Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the sufferings of others, they would not make them suffer so. What separated a German mother from a French mother?

Only he who bestirs himself can advance spiritually. The fool who uses extraneous aids for this, in the form of the ready-made opinions of others, only walks his path as if on crutches, while ignoring his own healthy limbs.

What should I do if in fretful sleep
The ghosts of the slaughtered were to appear,
Bloody, pale, and wan, and weep
In front of me, what should I do?

Matthias Claudius

He who sees the dark future must also see death, and fear it alone.

Friedrich Hölderlin

The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels at the completion of a work forms the germ of a new work.

Berthold Auerbach

When it comes to clichés, the Germans are extremely diligent, efficient and disciplined about living up to them.

Rainer Erlinger

Wednesdays were the best thing about Atlantis. The middle of the week was a traditional holiday there. Everyone stopped work and celebrated the fact that half the week was over.

And so the little girl grew up: her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as the blood, and her hair as black as ebony.

Germany, Germany above everything,
Above everything in the world,
When, for protection and defense, it always
takes a brotherly stand together.
From the Meuse to the Neman,
From the Adige to the Belt,

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben

We must rouse in our people the unanimous wish for power in this sense, together with the determination to sacrifice on the altar of patriotism, not only life and property, but also private views and preferences in the interests of the common welfare.

Friedrich von Bernhardi

Whatsoever Venus bids
Is a joy excelling,
Never in an evil heart
Did she make her dwelling.

Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general.

Christian Morgenstern

When at night I go to sleep,
Fourteen angels watch do keep.
Two stand here beside me,
Two stand there to guide me…
Two more light the path to heaven!

Indian monks were the first to choose the garden as the proper setting for their lives, which were devoted to the
contemplation of the divine; but with a prophetic eye we may see that the garden will often be dedicated in a
like manner: at a later time Greek philosophers, and monks in early Christian days, will retire into their
gardens for united, yet silent, contemplation.

Marie-Luise Gothein

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

Lion Feuchtwanger

I encouraged them, each who was able, to serve the Fatherland... I have done this [volunteered] because I believe I must be a good example for my community.

Clemens August Graf von Galen

I want to make a summing up, brief and to the point, but thorough. I have never suppressed a word in my books out of regard for other people and their prejudices.

John Henry Mackay

Only one thing abides: an infinite beauty that passes from form to form, eternally changed and revealed afresh.

Not every age allows its sons to reap the results which remain great for all time, and... not every century is fitted to make the men who live in it distinguished and happy.

How can such a disproportionately large number of people have a definite, and unusually positive relationship to Mozart?

Wolfgang Hildesheimer

This isn't the end, and a beginning looks different. This is the moment in between, when everything still looks possible.

When Lawrence first found a gentian, a big single blue one, I remember feeling as if he had a strange communion with it, as if the gentian yielded up its blueness, its very essence, to him. Everything he met had the newness of a creation just that moment come into being.

Frieda Lawrence

Averages might mean something to bureaucrats and engineers, but the sea had no struck with statistics: it was a succession of unpredictable circumstances and extremes.

Frank Schätzing

Watch out for people who feel weak. They may want to feel strong one day and you might not survive that moment.

When the tempest rages,
In the Rock of Ages
I will safely hide;
Though the earth be shaking,
And all hearts be quaking,
Christ is at my side.