Heinrich Heine

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Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856) was one of the most significant German poets.

Sourced

• Out of my own great woe
  I make my little songs.
  • Aus Meinen Grossen Schmerzen (Out of My Great Woe), st. 1

• Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
  Dass ich so traurig bin;
  Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
  Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
  • Translation: I cannot explain the sadness
    That's fallen on my breast.
    An old, old fable haunts me,
    And will not let me rest.
  • Die Lorelei, st. 1

• Du bist wie eine Blume,
  So hold und schön und rein;
  Ich schau dich an, und Wehmut
  Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.
  • Translation:
    You're lovely as a flower,
    Sp pure and fair to see;
    I look at you, and sadness
    Comes stealing over me.
  • Du Bist Wie eine Blume, st. 1

• At first I was almost about to despair, I thought I never could bear it—but I did I bear it. The question remains: how?
  • An Karl von U.

• Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland.
  Der Eichenbaum
  Wuchs dort so hoch, die Veilchen nickten sanft.
  Es war ein Traum.
  
  Das küßte mich auf deutsch und sprach auf deutsch
  (Man glaubt es kaum
  Wie gut es klang) das Wort: "Ich liebe dich!"
  Es war ein Traum.
  • Translation:
    I had once a beautiful fatherland.
    The oak tree
    Grew so high there, violets nodded softly.
    It was a dream.
    
    It kissed me in German and spoke in German
    (You would hardly believe
    How good it sounded) the words: "I love you!"
    It was a dream.
  • In Der Fremde (In a Foreign Land)

• Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
  • Translation:
    Where one begins by burning books, one will end up burning people./They that start by burning books will end by burning men./Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
  • Almansor: A Tragedy (1823)

• Every woman is the gift of a world to me.
  • Ideas: The Book Le Grand (1826)

• Don't send a poet to London.
  • English Fragments, ch. 2, London (1828)

• Christianity is an idea, and as such is indestructible and immortal, like every idea.
  • History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, Vol. I (1834)

• Mark this well, you proud men of action: You are nothing but the unwitting agents of the men of thought who often, in quiet self-effacement, mark out most exactly all your doings in advance.
  • History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, Vol. III (1834)

• People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral.
  • Französische Bühne (The French Stage), ch. 9 (1837)

• If one has no heart, one cannot write for the masses.
  • Letter to Julius Campe (March 18, 1840)

• Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison.
  • Lutetia; or, Paris. From the Augsberg Gazette, 12, VII (1842)

• The future smells of Russian leather, of blood, of godlessness and of much whipping. I advise our grandchildren to come into the world with very thick skin on their backs.
  • Lutetia; or, Paris. From the Augsberg Gazette, 12, VII (1842)

• No talent, but a character.
  • Atta Troll, ch. 24 (1843)

• Ordinarily he is insane, but he has lucid moments when he is only stupid.
  • Of Savoye, appointed ambassador to Frankfurt by Lamartine (1848)

• So we keep asking, over and over,
  Until a handful of earth
  Stops our mouths—
  But is that an answer?
  • Lazarus, I (1854)

• Bien sûr, il me pardonnera; c'est son métier.
  • Translation: Of course he [God] will forgive me; that's his business.
  • Last words (1856)

Attributed

• Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.

• Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.

• Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but less by assimilation than by fiction.

• I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.

• If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.

• In earlier religions the spirit of the time was expressed through the individual and confirmed by miracles. In modern religions the spirit is expressed through the many and confirmed by reason.

• Oh, what lies there are in kisses.

• One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.

• Rossini, divino Maestro.
  • Translation: Rossini, divine conductor.

• Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

• The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough.

• The weather-cock on the church spire, though made of iron, would soon be broken by the storm-wind if it did not understand the noble art of turning to every wind.

• The Wedding March always reminds me of the music played when soldiers go into battle.

• There are more fools in the world than there are people.

• True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

• Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one's nose.

• When words leave off, music begins.

• You cannot feed the hungry on statistics.

External links

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