Frasi di Christian Morgenstern

„Non ho mai potuto capire perché la gente mediocre dovrebbe smettere di essere mediocre solo perché sa scrivere.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„A tutti i sottomessi
Lo scrivo su tutti i cieli
Che racchiudono la nostra sfera terrestre:
Non il tiranno dobbiamo insultare,
Ma il servo che lavora per il tiranno.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

Origine: Citato in epigrafe a Donald Rayfield, Stalin e i suoi boia: una analisi del regime e della psicologia stalinisti, traduzione di Stefania De Franco, Garzanti, Milano, 2005. ISBN 88-11-69386-1.

„It is one of the oddest things in the world that you can read a page or more and think of something utterly different.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„A true artist never portrays to please, but to show.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„To me, the term ‘middle-class’ connotes a safe, comfortable, middle-of-the road policy. Above all, our language is ‘middle-class’ in the middle of our road. To drive it to one side or the other or even off the road, is the noblest task of the future.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„Home is not where you live but where they understand you.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„For, he reasons pointedly
That which must not, can not be.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

Weil, so schließt er messerscharf
Nicht sein kann, was nicht sein darf.
„Die unmögliche Tatsache” “The Impossible Fact” (1910)

„None of you knows what creativity means. To paint a picture, to write a poem? No! To recast one’s whole age, to impose upon it the stamp of one’s will, to fill it with beauty, to overwhelm it, to overpower it with one’s spirit.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

cited in Zarathustra’s Children (2000), p. 178

„Everything is beautiful if you love it.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„There is a ghost That eats hankerchiefs; It keeps you company On all your travels.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„Chess truly uncovers whether or not someone has imagination and takes initiative.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„My method is to find a word with a gesture.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„In every work of art, the artist himself is present.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„A poet must have died as a man before he is worth anything as a poet“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„For me, there is only one means of ensuring that I do not lose respect for myself: constant criticism.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„If I did not love what is present, if I could not cling to this enormous, safe parachute, I would long since have fallen into the abyss.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„Often I am struck in amazement about a word: I suddenly realize that the complete arbitrariness of our language is but a part of the arbitrariness of our own world in general.“

—  Christian Morgenstern

„If modern civilization man had to kill the animals he eats, the number of vegetarians would rise astronomically.“

—  Christian Morgenstern