Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
Karl KrausRead
How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the disconnection between truth and communication in political affairs.
Karl Kraus suggests that the mechanisms of power and conflict, particularly in the context of diplomacy and war, are driven by deception. He highlights the way diplomats manipulate information and how journalists, who are supposed to convey truth, often accept these distortions as reality, leading to a cycle of misunderstanding and hostility in the world.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of truth in journalism.
Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.
The 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.
Perhaps no promise in life is more reassuring than that promise of divine assistance and spiritual guidance in times of need. It is a gift freely given from heaven, a gift that we need from our earliest youth through the very latest days of our lives.
We don't have the time to completely be ourselves. We only have the room to be happy.
Because of lack of moral principle, human life becomes worthless. Moral principle, truthfulness, is a key factor. If we lose that, then there is no future.
In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection.
Are you then unable to recognize unless it has the same sound as yours?
I have outlasted all desire, My dreams and I have grown apart; My grief alone is left entire, The gleamings of an empty heart. The storms of ruthless dispensation Have struck my flowery garland numb, I live in lonely desolation And wonder when my end will come. Thus on a naked tree-limb, blasted By tardy winter's whistling chill, A single leaf which has outlasted Its season will be trembling still.
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