Top 234 Quotes & Sayings by Heinrich Heine

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a German poet Heinrich Heine.

Last updated on November 25, 2024.

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

German - Poet | December 13, 1797 - February 17, 1856

Source: Wikipedia

Human misery is too great for men to do without faith.

Heinrich Heine

The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

Oh, what lies there are in kisses.

Heinrich Heine

Like a great poet, Nature knows how to produce the greatest effects with the most limited means.

Heinrich Heine

Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle.

Heinrich Heine

Atheism is the last word of theism.

Heinrich Heine

It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of - another Jew?

Heinrich Heine

God will forgive me; that's his business.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

He only profits from praise who values criticism.

Heinrich Heine

I do not know if she was virtuous, but she was ugly, and with a woman that is half the battle.

Heinrich Heine

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.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

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.

Heinrich Heine

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Heinrich Heine

Woman is at once apple and serpent.

Heinrich Heine

Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.

Heinrich Heine

Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born is of course the miracle.

Heinrich Heine

Communism possesses a language which every people can understand - its elements are hunger, envy, and death.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

I have never seen an ass who talked like a human being, but I have met many human beings who talked like asses.

Heinrich Heine

Ask me not what I have, but what I am.

Heinrich Heine

God will forgive me. It's his job.

Heinrich Heine

Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

Whether a revolution succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.

Heinrich Heine

Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on.

Heinrich Heine

In these times we fight for ideas and newspapers are our fortress.

Heinrich Heine

I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day.

Heinrich Heine

Whenever books are burned, men also in the end are burned.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

It is a common phenomenon that just the prettiest girls find it so difficult to get a man.

Heinrich Heine

Christ rode on an ass, but now asses ride on Christ.

Heinrich Heine

The men of action are, after all, only the unconscious instruments of the men of thought.

Heinrich Heine

Of course God will forgive me; that's His job.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

When words leave off, music begins.

Heinrich Heine

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

Heinrich Heine

I live, which is the main point.

Heinrich Heine

We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged

Heinrich Heine

Like a great poet, Nature produces the greatest results with the simplest means. These are simply a sun, trees, flowers, water and love.

Heinrich Heine

I care little in the existence of a heaven or hell; self respect does not allow me to guide my acts with an eye toward heavenly salvation or hellish punishment. I pursue the good in life because it is beautiful and attracts me; and shun the bad because it is ugly and repulsive. All our acts should originate from the spring of unselfish love, whether there be a continuation after death or not.

Heinrich Heine

If you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe.

Heinrich Heine

Where words leave off, music begins.

Heinrich Heine

A brainiac notices everything, an ignoramus comments about everything.

Heinrich Heine

Silence is the essential condition of happiness.

Heinrich Heine

My heart resembles the ocean; has storm, and ebb and flow; and many a beautiful pearl lies hid in its depths below.

Heinrich Heine

The men of the past had convictions, while we moderns have only opinions.

Heinrich Heine

The arrow belongs not to the archer when it has once left the bow; the word no longer belongs to the speaker when it has once passed his lips, especially when it has been multiplied by the press.

Heinrich Heine

Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes are: a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, the freshest milk and butter, flowers before my window, and a few fine trees before my door; and if God wants to make my happiness complete, he will grant me the joy of seeing some six or seven of my enemies hanging from those trees. Before death I shall, moved in my heart, forgive them all the wrong they did me in their lifetime. One must, it is true, forgive one's enemies-- but not before they have been hanged.

Heinrich Heine

In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides.

Heinrich Heine

The deepest truth blooms only from the deepest love.

Heinrich Heine

I bequeath all my property to my wife on the condition that she remarry immediately. Then there will be at least one man to regret my death.

Heinrich Heine

The propaganda of communism possesses a language which every people can understand. Its elements are simply hunger, envy, death.

Heinrich Heine

The more i get to know people, the more i like dogs.

Heinrich Heine

Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet.

Heinrich Heine