Ludwig Borne Quotations

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

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

If one age believes too much it is natural that another believes too little.

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.

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

Let us have no care, but be glad of the approaching springtime of the peoples. Let us have no fear of the movement into the open.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Nought endures but change.

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

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

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

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

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

Only the suppressed word is dangerous.

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.