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Karl Kraus

Karl Kraus Quotes

Writer

Karl Kraus (April 28, 1874 - June 12, 1936) was an Austrian writer and critic, known for his satirical and critical writing style. He was one of the most important Austrian writers of the early 20th century, particularly renowned for his sharp commentary on society, politics, and culture.

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Famous Karl Kraus Quotes

“The tyranny of necessity grants its slaves three kinds of freedom: opinion free from intellect, entertainment free from art, and orgies free from love.”

Kind Art Three Opinion Slave Entertainment Intellect Tyranny Grants

Author:Karl Kraus

“A philistine is habitually bored and looks for things that won't bore him. An artist finds things boring, but is never bored.”

Looks Art Artist Boring Bored Boredom Bores Philistines

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“If by day art is in the service of business, the evenings are devoted to the businessman's enjoyment of it. That is asking a lot of art, but art and the businessman make it work.”

Ifs Art Business Art Is Asking Evening Enjoyment Devoted Businessman

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“Insights into erotic life belong to art, not education. But sometimes these have to be spelled out for the illiterates. And it ismainly a matter of convincing the illiterates, for they are the ones who write the penal code.”

Writing Art Sometimes Matter Insight Code Convincing Erotic

Author:Karl Kraus

“The art of an actress is sublimated sexuality. But off the stage the fire must be able to reconvert the steam into body.”

Art Body Able Actors Acting Fire Stage Sexuality Actresses Steam

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“Art is something that is so perfectly clear that no one comprehends it.”

Art Clear Art Is

Author:Karl Kraus

“Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.”

Art Light Science Vision Art Is Analysis Awe Synthesis Seeing The Light

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace.”

Art Made Beautiful Atheism Embrace Positive Atheism

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“The ultimate aim of psychoanalysis is to attribute art to mental weakness, and then to trace the weakness back to the point where, according to analytic dogma, it originated namely, the lavatory.”

Art Weakness Ultimate Aim Attributes Dogma Psychoanalysis Analytics

Book:Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry

Source: Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry

“This is something that I cannot get over -- that a whole line could be written by half a man, that a work could be built on the quicksand of a character.”

Men Writing Art Whole Character Lines Half Written Built Get Over Quicksand

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

About the Author

Born: April 28, 1874
Died: June 12, 1936
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 269

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Literature Ifs Men People Writing World Language Art Doe Wells Education Journalist Morality Humans Ideas Knows Lying Reading Way Firsts

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Books & Sources

Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected AphorismsRelated source material

Dicta and ContradictaRelated source material

Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and PsychiatryRelated source material

No Compromise: Selected Writings of Karl KrausRelated source material

The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl KrausRelated source material

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