Poets From Austria

"Diu welt ist ûzen schoene wîz grüen unde rôt und innân swarzer varwe vinster sam der tôt."

"Owê war sint verswunden alliu mîniu jâr ist mir mîn leben getroumet oder ist ez wâr."

"Die daz rehte singen stoerent, der ist ungelîche mêre danne die ez gerne hoerent."

"Mir ist verspert der sælden tor dâ stên ich als ein weise vor mich hilfet niht swaz ich dar an geklopfe."

"Jâ leider desn mac niht gesîn, daz guot und weltlich êre und gotes hulde mêre zesamene in ein herze komen."

"Liebe machet schoene wîp: desn mac diu schoene niht getuon, sin machet niemer lieben lîp."

"Daz si da heizent minne, Deis niewan senede leit."

"The greatest of the Minnesinger, all of whom he surpasses both in the range and in the humanity of his poetry."

"For five hundred years after Walther's death – until Goethe – no German lyric poet was his equal."

"He has no equal in medieval German lyric poetry and perhaps not even in European lyric poetry of the Middle Ages."

"He is equally great whether his theme be religion, patriotism, or love. As a political poet he is one of the greatest of all time."

"Swer guotes wîbes minne hât, der schamt sich aller missetât."

"Under der linden an der heide, dâ unser zweier bette was, dâ mugt ir vinden schône beide gebrochen bluomen unde gras."

"Wer kan den hêrren von dem knehte gescheiden, swâ er ir gebeine blôzez fünde, het er ir joch lebender künde?"

"The mouthpiece of the half-inarticulate, all-suggesting music that is at once the very soul and the inseparable garment of romance."

"He was known to his countrymen as the Nightingale, but his own sweet-sounding name of Bird's-meadow (Vogelweide) suggests even more directly the pure, true, flute-like strain which he poured into Europe’s choir of voices."

"Zwei Seelen und ein Gedanke, Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag."

"I love the pride whose measure is its own eminence and not the insignificance of someone else."

"When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental—far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns."

"Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power."

"I'd wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels."

"Why do comparisons of words and tone poems (poetry and music) never take into consideration that the word is a mere signifier, but that the sound, aside from being a signifier, is also an object?"

"Do not doubt him who tells you he is afraid, but be afraid of him who tells you he has no doubts."

"A man's jealousy is a social institution, a woman's prostitution an instinct."

"Everyone is stopped and waiting, maitre d's, hansom cab drivers and governments. Everyone's waiting for the end. Let's hope the apocalypse is pleasant, Your Highness."

"There are women who are not beautiful but only look that way."

"What is the Ninth Symphony compared to a Tin Pan Alley hit played on a hurdy-gurdy and a memory?"

"Der Fortschritt feiert Pyrrhussiege über die Natur."

"Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace."

"Psychoanalysis is that mental illness which claims to be its own cure. (Vienna, 1972)"

"Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence."

"Progress … has subordinated the purpose of life to the means of subsistence and turned us into the nuts and bolts for our tools."

"The tyranny of necessity grants its slaves three kinds of freedom: opinion free from intellect, entertainment free from art, and orgies free from love."

"We are sacrificing ourselves for our ready-made goods; we are consumers and live in such a way that the means may consume the end."

"An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half."

"Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world."

"The esthete stands in the same relation to beauty as the pornographer stands to love, and the politician stands to life."

"My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious."

"War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that the enemy too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost."

"Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis."

"I hear noises which others don't hear and which disturb for me the music of the spheres, which others don't hear either."

"Many share my views with me. But I don't share them with them."

"It so often happened to me that someone who shared my opinion kept the larger share for himself that I am now forewarned and offer people only ideas."

"Moral responsibility is what is lacking in a man when he demands it of a woman."

"The secret of the demagogue is to appear as dumb as his audience so that these people can believe themselves as smart as he."

"I have often been asked to be fair and view a matter from all sides. I did so, hoping something might improve if I viewed all sides of it. But the result was the same. So I went back to viewing things only from one side, which saves me a lot of work and disappointment. For it is comforting to regard something as bad and be able use one's prejudice as an excuse."

"I and my public understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear."

"I no longer have collaborators. I used to be envious of them. They repel those readers whom I want to lose myself."

"What is my love? That I amalgamate the bad features of a woman into a good picture. And my hatred? That I see the bad features in the picture of a bad man."

"When I read, it is not acted literature; but what I write is written acting."