Heinrich Heine Quotes

عازفةُ الهارب الصغيرة، تُغنّي
تغنّي؛ الإحساس صادقٌ
والصوت مفتعلٌ، غير أنّي - وياللعجب،
كنتُ مطمئنا تماما لعزفها

Christianity - and that is its greatest merit - has somewhat mitigated that brutal Germanic love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably. Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and finally Thor with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals. ... Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder is of true Germanic character; it is not very nimble, but rumbles along ponderously. Yet, it will come and when you hear a crashing such as never before has been heard in the world's history, then you know that the German thunderbolt has fallen at last. At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in the remotest deserts of Africa will hide in their royal dens. A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll. (1834)

Like a great poet, nature knows how to produce the greatest effects with the utmost economy of means: nothing but sun, trees, flowers, water, and love. Of course, if the latter is absent from the beholder’s heart, the whole landscape will be an unpleasing sight; then the sun is merely so many miles in diameter, and the trees provide good firewood, and the flowers are classified according to the number of their stamens, and the water is wet.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

Yes, I know better; God created man so that he might admire the splendour of the world. Every author, be he never so great, wants his work to be praised.

When words leave off, music begins.

If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found the time to conquer the world.

The Purpose of Life is Life itself it

Es una historia vieja que siempre sigue siendo nueva y, a quien le pasa, el corazón se le parte en dos.

You cannot feed the hungry on statistics.

The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.

But that age … exerts on us
An almost terrible charm,
Like the memory of things seen
And a life lived in dreams.

On Wings of Song,
Sweetheart, I carry you away,
Away to the fields of the Ganges,
Where I know the most beautiful place.

First poems! They must be written on casual scraps of faded paper, interspersed here and there with withered flowers, or a lock of blond hair, or a discolored piece of ribbon, and the trace of a tear must still be visible in several places ... But first poems that are printed, in livid black and white, on dreadfully smooth paper are poems that have lost the finest points of their sweet, virginal charm, and now arouse a ghastly feeling of distaste in the author.

Zij was beminnelijk en hij beminde haar, / hij echter was niet beminnelijk / en zij beminde hem niet. (Een oud stuk)