Ludwig Borne Quotes

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

Women are most adorable when they are afraid; that's why they frighten so easily.

The secret of power is the knowledge that others are more cowardly than you are.

Governments are the sails, the people the wind, the country is the ship and time is the sea.

To be original you must listen to the voice of your heart rather than the clamor of the world - and have the courage to teach publicly what you have learned. The source of all genius is sincerity; men would be wiser if they were more moral.

You are not loved when you are lovely, but when you are loved you are found to be lovely.

Because I was born a slave, I love liberty more than you.

Only the suppressed word is dangerous.

History teaches us virtue, but nature never ceases to teachh us vice.

If you must hate, if hatred is the leaven of your life, which alone can give flavor, then hate what should be hated: falsehood, violence, selfishness.

The difference between Liberty and liberties is as great as God and gods.

Nothing endures except change; nothing is constant except death. Every heartbeat wounds us, and life would be an eternal bleeding to death, were it not for literature. It grants us what nature does not: a golden time that doesn't rust, a springtime that never wilts, cloudless happiness and eternal youth. [my translation]

Nothing is lasting but change; nothing perpetual but death.

The most dangerous person is the fearful; he is the most to be feared.

Ministers fall like buttered slices of bread: usually on their good side.

Nought endures but change.