Life is all too wondrous sweet, and the world is so beautifully bewildered; it is the dream of an intoxicated divinity.
Heinrich HeineRead
Das war ein vorspeil nur; That was only a prelude; dort wo man Buecher verbrennt, Where one burns books, vebrennt man auch am Ende One will also burn people Menchen. Eventually.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote warns against the dangers of censorship and the suppression of ideas, suggesting that such actions may lead to greater atrocities.
Heinrich Heine's quote expresses a profound warning about the consequences of censorship and the destruction of knowledge. By stating that where books are burned, people will eventually also be burned, he highlights the inherent danger of suppressing dissenting ideas and the slippery slope it creates towards violence and oppression. It serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting freedom of thought and expression.
Themes
CensorshipFreedomIdeasOppressionKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for free speech, one might quote Heine to emphasize the risks of censorship.
More from Heinrich Heine
All quotes →Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.
Heinrich HeineRead
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 HeineRead
I wept in my dreams. I dreamed you lay in the grave; I awoke, and the tears still poured down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, I dreamed you had left me; I awoke and I went on weeping long and bitterly. I wept in my dreams, I dreamed you were still kind to me; I awoke, and still the flow of my tears streams on.
Heinrich HeineRead
Oh, they loved dearly: their souls kissed, they kissed with their eyes, they were both but one single kiss.
Heinrich HeineRead
Where books are burned in the end people will be burned too.
Heinrich HeineRead
Similar quotes
I expect we shall be told, that the Militia of the country is its natural bulwark, and would be at all times equal to the national defence...The facts, which from our own experience forbid a reliance of this kind, are too recent to permit us to be the dupes of such a suggestion.
Alexander HamiltonRead
I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful religion if you learn it the right way.
Dave ChappelleRead
Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
Losing love is so rich a philosophical ordeal that it makes a hairdresser into a rival of Socrates.
Emile M. CioranRead
The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people.
Robert FrostRead
Take but degree away, untune that string, and hark, what discord follows!
William ShakespeareRead