Heinrich Heine

Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but, less by assimilation than by friction.

Society is a republic. When an individual endeavors to lift himself above his fellows, he is dragged down by the mass, either by means of ridicule or of calumny. No one shall be more virtuous or more intellectually gifted than others. Whoever, by the irresistable force of genius, rises above the common herd is certain to be ostracized by society, which will pursue him with such merciless derision and detraction that at last he will be compelled to retreat into the solitude of his thoughts.

There are more fools in the world than there are people.

Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men and rocks all of them to manhood.

Tam, gdzie pali się książki, dojdzie w końcu do palenia ludzi.

Whenever books are burned men also in the end are burned.

Najwznioślejszy nawet lament kończy się wytarciem nosa.

Gdzie się pali książki, dojdzie w końcu do palenia ludzi. (Wo mann bücher werbrennt, werbrennt man am ende menschen.)

Bóg mi wybaczy, to jego fach.

Experience is a good school but the fees are high.

The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough. (from English Fragments)

It must require an inordinate share of vanity and presumption, too, after enjoying so much that is good and beautiful on earth, to ask the Lord for immortality in addition to all.

Human misery is too great for men to do without faith.

The sea has its pearls, The heaven its stars, -- But my heart, my heart, My heart has its love. (Das Meer hat seine Perlen, Stanza )

Since the Exodus, freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent. (Germany to Luther, 1834)

Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people.

The German is like the slave who, without chains, obeys his masters merest word, his very glance. The condition of servitude is inherent in him, in his very soul; and worse than the physical is the spiritual slavery. The Germans must be set free from within. From without there is no help. (Gedanken und Einfalle)

Dieu me pardonnera; c'est son metier. (God will pardon me, that's his job.)

Jedynie cierpienie, które dotyka nas w sposób bezpośredni, jest w stanie wycisnąć z naszych oczu łzy: tak naprawdę to każdy płacze za siebie samego.