A.R. Von Quotes

Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace.

Peace and not war is the father of all things.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.

Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.

Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. - Without haste, but without rest.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.

If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed.

Politics is not an exact science.

Now is the time to become a myth.

Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain.

War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

The lamp of genius burns quicker than the lamp of life.

Unrest and uncertainty are our lot.

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

A man must seek his happiness and inward peace from objects which cannot be taken away from him.

Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny

The clever reader who is capable or reading between these lines what does not stand written in them but is nevertheless implied will be able to form some conception.

No skill or art is needed to grow old; the trick is to endure it.

How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.

A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.

Several classical sayings that one likes to repeat had quite a different meaning from the ones later times attributed to them.

A mind, once formed, is never suited after, One yet in growth will ever grateful be. [Ger., Wer fertig ist, dem ist nichts recht zu machen, Ein Werdender wird immer dankbar sein.]

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.

The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.

The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.

Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of truth.

The history of mankind is his character.

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

For a strolling damsel a doubtful reputation bears. [Ger., Denn ein wanderndes Madchen ist immer von schwankendem Rufe.]

There is a politeness of the heart; this is closely allied to love.

If we reason that we want happiness for others, not for ourselves, then we ought justly to be suspected of failing to recognize human nature for what it is and of wishing to turn men into machines.

Action has magic, grace and power in it.

I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times.

English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.

Even by means of our sorrows we belong to the eternal plan.

Thou art in the end what thou art. Put on wigs with millions of curls, set thy foot upon ell-high rocks. Thou abidest ever--what thou art.

The price of apparent happiness and enjoyment is the neglect of the spontaneous active energies of the acting members.

Women are in this respect more fortunate than men, that most of their employments are of such a nature that they can at the same time be thinking of quite different things.

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.

He who cannot love must learn to flatter.

Giving is the business of the rich.

The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.

Beauty vanishes; virtue is lasting.

Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.