Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the idea that people are judged equally, regardless of their status, revealing a universal disdain for mediocrity.
Karl Kraus's statement emphasizes that he sees all individuals as equal, highlighting his disdain for foolishness found in all walks of life. The quote suggests that intelligence, integrity, or lack thereof are not confined to social classes, portraying a strong contempt for ignorance regardless of its source. It reflects the idea that human flaws are universally present, and Kraus applies the same standard of judgment to everyone.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on equality in society, this quote can be used to emphasize the universal flaws in human character.
More from Karl Kraus
All quotes βThe mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.
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.
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world.
Similar quotes
I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and wellbeing, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may be children of God, and busy for one another, bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfiling the law of Christ.
Strategy is the craft of the warrior.
But the fact of it was that I liked it out there, a ruin devoid of human vanities, clean of human illusions, an empty place reclaimed by the weather where a woman plays an organ to stop the wind's whining and an old man plays ball with a dog named Duke. I could tell you that I came back because I had promises to keep, but maybe it was because nobody asked me to stay.
Do you call yourself Free? It is your ruling thought that I would hear, and not that you have escaped from a yoke.