Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
Karl KrausRead
Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language shapes our thoughts and ideas, rather than simply expressing them.
This quote by Karl Kraus emphasizes the fundamental role of language in the development of human thought. It suggests that language is not merely a tool for communication, but an integral part of how we think and perceive the world. Without language, our thoughts would lack structure and clarity, indicating that the development of ideas is closely intertwined with linguistic expression.
Themes
LanguageThoughtExpressionCommunicationPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of language on personal identity, this quote can highlight the importance of linguistic diversity.
More from Karl Kraus
All quotes βThe mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.
Karl KrausRead
War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.
Karl KrausRead
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
Karl KrausRead
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
Karl KrausRead
Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world.
Karl KrausRead
Similar quotes
The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood.
Rene DescartesRead
Through tears and trials, through fears and sorrows, through the heartache and loneliness of losing loved ones, there is assurance that life is everlasting. Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so.
Thomas S. MonsonRead
Normativity, I believe, is very different from motivating force. Neither includes, or implies, the other. Other animals can be motivated by their desires and beliefs. Only we can understand and respond to reasons.
Derek ParfitRead
I don't like the word 'autobiography.' I rather like the term 'autofiction.' The second you make a script out of the story of your life, it becomes fictional. Of course, the truth is never far. But the story is created out of it.
Marjane SatrapiRead
More than its utilitarian and technocratic transparency, it is the opaque ambivalence of its oddities that makes the city livable.
Michel De CerteauRead
In the order of literature, as in others, there is no act that is not the coronation of an infinite series of causes and the source of an infinite series of effects.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead