Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
Karl KrausRead
It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Idealism finds comfort in the new when it loses something valuable.
In this quote, Karl Kraus reflects on the nature of idealism, suggesting that individuals who hold idealistic views often cope with the sadness of losing the familiar by embracing the possibilities and excitement of new experiences. This highlights the duality of human emotions, where loss and gain coexist, and encourages a perspective that values change and growth.
Themes
IdealismChangeLossNew BeginningsGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about embracing change in our lives.
More from Karl Kraus
All quotes →The 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
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For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it—as if it were quite other than himself—and then trying to grasp it. But a third response is possible. Not withdrawal, not stewardship on the hypothesis of a future reward, but the fullest collaboration with the world as a harmonious system of contained conflicts—based on the realization that the only real "I" is the whole endless process.
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One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.
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