Woman is at once apple and serpent.
Meaning of the quote
This quote suggests that women can be seen as both tempting and dangerous, like the apple that Eve ate and the serpent that tricked her in the biblical story. The poet is saying that women can be seen as both appealing and threatening at the same time. It's a complex and controversial way of describing the perception of women in society.
About Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine was a renowned German poet, writer, and literary critic known for his witty and ironic verse and prose. Despite facing censorship and political exile, he became a celebrated figure in the Young Germany movement and is particularly renowned for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music by composers like Schumann and Schubert.
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More quotes from Heinrich Heine
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Human misery is too great for men to do without faith.
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Ask me not what I have, but what I am.
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Oh, what lies there are in kisses.
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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.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
The Wedding March always reminds me of the music played when soldiers go into battle.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Atheism is the last word of theism.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
There are more fools in the world than there are people.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
You cannot feed the hungry on statistics.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
God will forgive me; that’s his business.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one’s nose.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of – another Jew?
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
The men of action are, after all, only the unconscious instruments of the men of thought.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
In these times we fight for ideas and newspapers are our fortress.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
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.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
He only profits from praise who values criticism.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but, less by assimilation than by fiction.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
I have never seen an ass who talked like a human being, but I have met many human beings who talked like asses.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Communism possesses a language which every people can understand – its elements are hunger, envy, and death.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
It is a common phenomenon that just the prettiest girls find it so difficult to get a man.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
God will forgive me. It’s his job.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Like a great poet, Nature knows how to produce the greatest effects with the most limited means.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Woman is at once apple and serpent.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born is of course the miracle.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Whenever books are burned, men also in the end are burned.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
I do not know if she was virtuous, but she was ugly, and with a woman that is half the battle.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
When words leave off, music begins.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)
Whether a revolution succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.
German poet, writer and literary critic (1797-1856)