"Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison."

Heinrich Heine Literature See all quotes by Heinrich Heine →

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“Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one's nose.”

“Don't send a poet to London.”

“The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough.”

“Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.”

“No talent, but a character.”

“He who will establish himself on a certain height must yield according to circumstances, like the weather-cock on a church-spire, which, though it be made of iron, would soon be broken by the storm-wind if it remained obstinately immovable, and did not understand the noble art of turning to every wind. But a great man will never so far contradict his own feelings as to see, or, it may be, increase, with cold-blooded indifference, the misfortunes of his fellow country-men.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Western observers focus more on the regime's economic failures than the North Koreans themselves do. Remember that it was only in recent modern times that Western societies began expecting the state t…"

— Brian Reynolds Myers

Education1963

#success

"I can’t sit down and write jokes. I just flows in from some maddeningly elusive place. Believe me, if I had an Alaska in my brain, I would drill baby drill, and I’d cum right on Sarah’s back while I w…"

— Louis C.K.

Entertainment1967

#justice

"This theme of mismeasurement interacts with the designation of the one hundred years between 1870 and 1970 as the “special century.” Measurement errors are greatest in the early years, both in the sco…"

— Robert J. Gordon

Economics1940

#life

"Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis. Conservatives have their place in the piping times of peace; but in emergencies only rugged issue men amount to much."

— James A. Garfield

Politics1831–1881

#time