Friedrich Dürrenmatt quotes - page 2

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss playwright and novelist, renowned for his darkly comic plays and crime fiction. His works often explore themes of justice, existentialism, and the absurdities of society. He became a key figure in postwar European literature and influenced generations of writers and thinkers. Here are 62 of his quotes:

Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand. (Friedrich Dürrenmatt)
A state always calls itself fatherland when it is ready for murder. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Above all, be suspicious of your fatherland. Nobody is more inclined to become a murderer than a fatherland. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
One does not set fire to a world which is already lost. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Whoever is content with the world, and who profits from its lack of justice, does not want to change it. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
There is a moment when nothing can be wiped out and left behind any more, when there is only reality and reality is horrifying. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Revolutions demand enormous sacrifices and, at the same time, create a new need to change the world again. (Friedrich Dürrenmatt)
For a person who is dying only eternity counts. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
In a society which is structured the wrong way, piety has no effect. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Every work of art depicts an aspect of reality. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Man is imperfect. The reality he creates is always endangered by man. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
This inhuman world has to become more humane. But how? View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
When death has you by the throat, you don't mince words. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Only the freedom of mind can prevent the state from becoming totalitarian and from issuing totalitarian demands. (Friedrich Dürrenmatt)
A story has been thought through to the end when it has taken the worst possible turn. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
There is also a reasonable tolerance: reason tolerates the reasonable. It is, however, almost tautological to call this 'tolerance' any longer, as it becomes a matter of course. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
People like us who are on their last leg can only understand comedies. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
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. View quote
Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Image
Photo: Elke Wetzig (elya), CC BY-SA 2.5
Occupation: Swiss Author
Born: January 5, 1921
Died: December 14, 1990
Quotes count: 62
Wikipedia: Friedrich Dürrenmatt

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