Best 17 quotes of Lion Feuchtwanger on MyQuotes

After closely examining my conscience, I venture to state that in my historical novels I intended the content to be just as modern and up-to-date as in the contemporary ones.

An action doesn't have to be wrong just because it is not logical. It doesn't have to be right just because it has its logic.

An author who sets about to depict events of the past that have run their course is suspected of wishing to avoid the problems of the present day, of being, in other words, a reactionary.

Both the historian and the novelist view history as the struggle of a tiny minority, able and determined to make judgments, which is up against a vast and densely packed majority of the blind, who are led by their instincts and unable to think for themselves.

Ever since my youth it has disturbed me that of the literary works that survived their own epoch, so many dealt with historical rather than contemporary subjects.

From depicting the past, so goes the suspicion, it is a short step to glorifying the past.

I have always made an effort to render every detail of my reality with the greatest accuracy; but I have never paid attention to whether my presentation of historical facts was an exact one.

I should add that it is open to debate whether what we call the writing of history these days is truly scientific.

It is only the strong who are strengthened by suffering; the weak are made weaker.

Like the philosopher, the author views his task as one of establishing a clear connection between life and history, and of making the past bear fruit for the present and future.

There's only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there's no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

What is a historian, anyway? It is someone who uses facts to record the development of humanity.

Die Mode jener Jahre war umständlich und töricht. Die Männer knöpften sich steifleinerne Krägen um die Hälse, enge, überflüssige, unschöne Kleidungsstücke, und umwanden sie mühsam zu schlingenden, zwecklosen Binden, sogenannten Krawatten.

I have sincerely tried not to deride the action of men, not to lament nor to abhor them. I have done all in my might to understand them.- Spinoza

Talented person is talented everywhere.

The word and the image mutually excluded each other. Joseph was a literary man to his very marrow; he put faith in the invisible Word; it was the most miraculous thing in all the world; though without form it had more power than anything endowed with form

Whoever is free from prejudice should be ready to face misunderstanding.