Karl Kraus Language Quotations

Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.

Let language be the divining rod that finds the sources of thought.

I have drawn from the well of language many a thought which I do not have and which I could not put into words.

Language is the only chimera whose illusory power is endless, the inexhaustibility which keeps life from being impoverished. Let men learn to serve language.

The most incomprehensible talk comes from people who have no other use for language than to make themselves understood.

Heinrich Heine so loosened the corsets of the German language that today every little salesman can fondle her breasts.