Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
Karl KrausRead
Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously critiques journalists as skilled communicators who often lack original ideas and suggests that deadlines are essential to their writing quality.
Karl Kraus's quote satirically defines a journalist as someone who may not possess original ideas but has the unique ability to articulate those ideas. He posits that the pressure of deadlines is crucial for journalists, implying that too much time can lead to poorer quality writing, thereby highlighting the paradox of creativity under constraint.
Themes
JournalismWritingDeadlineCreativityHumor
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be referenced during a discussion about the pressures faced by journalists today.
More from Karl Kraus
All quotes →The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.
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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.
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Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
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Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
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Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world.
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