The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Friedrich Durrenmatt
Swiss
Author
About the author
The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Right
#Dissent
The savages don't have atom bombs.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Bombs
The world is bad but not without hope. It is only hopeless when you look at it from an ideal viewpoint.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Hope
#World
There are risks which are not acceptable: the destruction of humanity is one of them.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Destruction
#Humanity
There is a moment when nothing can be wiped out and left behind any more, when there is only reality and reality is horrifying.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Nothing
#Reality
This inhuman world has to become more humane. But how?
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
Today's Communism can survive only if it abandons the myth of an infallible party, if it continues to think, and if it becomes democratic.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Today
#Party
#Myth
#Communism
Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Today
#Difference
#states
#United
#Russia
People like us who are on their last leg can only understand comedies.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#People
The evolution of humans can not only be seen as the grand total of their wars; it is also defined by the evolution of the human mind and the development of the human consciousness.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Mind
#Evolution
#Consciousness
#Development
The worst possible turn can not be programmed. It is caused by coincidence.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and have to replace them with the search for truth, justice, freedom and reason.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Reason
#Freedom
#Present
#Truth
#Age
#Justice
The only remedy against hunger is reasonable birth control.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Control
#Hunger
#Birth control
A major power can afford a military debacle only when it looks like a political victory.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Power
#Military
#Victory
A state always calls itself fatherland when it is ready for murder.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#State
#Murder
A story has been thought through to the end when it has taken the worst possible turn.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#End
#Thought
Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Will
#Peace
#Science
#Research
#Ruin
#Reality
Above all, be suspicious of your fatherland. Nobody is more inclined to become a murderer than a fatherland.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
Communism is a proposition to structure the world more reasonably, a proposition for changing the world. As such, we have to analyze it and, if we deem it reasonable, act upon it.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#Act
#Communism
Emotions have no place in business, unless you do business with them.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Emotions
#Business
Everything in the world can be changed, my dear Florestan, but the human being.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#Being
Everything that is necessary is also easy. You just have to accept it. And the most necessary, the most natural matter on this planet is death.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Death
For a person who is dying only eternity counts.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Eternity
#Dying
For people who have no critical acumen, a state is a mythical entity, for those who think critically it is a rational fiction, created by man in order to facilitate human coexistence.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#People
#State
#Man
#Order
#Fiction
I am a man, and God is hiding from us humans. We are unable to see Him, we can only search for Him.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#God
#Man
In a society which is structured the wrong way, piety has no effect.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Society
#Wrong
#Effect
#Piety
It is easy to kill when you don't see your victim.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
It is inhuman to continue a war which could easily be ended.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#War
It is surely easier to confess a murder over a cup of coffee than in front of a jury.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Coffee
#Murder
#Jury
Only the freedom of mind can prevent the state from becoming totalitarian and from issuing totalitarian demands.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Freedom
#State
#Mind
Justice is horrible.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Justice
Man is imperfect. The reality he creates is always endangered by man.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Man
#Reality
News reports don't change the world. Only facts change it, and those have already happened when we get the news.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#Change
#Facts
#News
Nothing that has been thought can ever be taken back.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Nothing
#Thought
One does not set fire to a world which is already lost.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#Fire
A story is not finished, until it took the worst turn.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
Human life is beyond comprehension.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Life
We are the world.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
We do not consider patriotism desirable if it contradicts civilized behavior.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Patriotism
#Behavior
When death has you by the throat, you don't mince words.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Words
#Death
Who sows fear, reaps weapons.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Fear
#Weapons
Whoever is content with the world, and who profits from its lack of justice, does not want to change it.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Want
#World
#Justice
#Change
#Content
Without tolerance, our world turns into hell.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#Hell
#Tolerance
World history is tragic.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#World
#History
You can't take back an act you were able to think.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Act
Truth is always a delusion.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Truth
#Delusion
The freedom of each individual can only be the freedom of all.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Freedom
The difference between humans and wild animals is that humans pray before they commit murder.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Difference
#Animals
#Murder
The art of the cuisine, when fully mastered, is the one human capability of which only good things can be said.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Art
Someone who is about to die does not mourn the dead.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Religion
#Expediency
Revolutions demand enormous sacrifices and, at the same time, create a new need to change the world again.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Time
#World
#Change
Resistance at all cost is the most senseless act there is.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Act
Power is paradoxical.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Power
There are thoughts we must not think.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Thoughts
Pretend to be dumb, that's the only way to reach old age.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Old
#Dumb
#Age
So then learn to conquer your fear. This is the only art we have to master nowadays: to look at things without fear, and to fearlessly do right.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Right
#Art
#Fear
The problems of all of humanity can only be solved by all of humanity.
Friedrich Durrenmatt,
Swiss
Author
#Problems
#Humanity