Quotes by Swiss authors

See the complete list of authors from Switzerland

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"There are risks which are not acceptable: the destruction of humanity is one of them"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"It is easy to kill when you don't see your victim"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"Human life is beyond comprehension"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"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"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"Truth is always a delusion"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"Pretend to be dumb, that's the only way to reach old age"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"People like us who are on their last leg can only understand comedies"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"Man is imperfect. The reality he creates is always endangered by man"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"Above all, be suspicious of your fatherland. Nobody is more inclined to become a murderer than a fatherland"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

Friedrich Durrenmatt

"A story is not finished, until it took the worst turn"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

"Beauty is as relative as light and dark. Thus, there exists no beautiful woman, none at all, because you are never certain that a still far more beautiful woman will not appear and completely shame the supposed beauty of the first"

Paul Klee, Artist

"One eye sees, the other feels"

Paul Klee, Artist

"Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn"

Paul Klee, Artist

"A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller"

Paul Klee, Artist

"A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe"

Le Corbusier, Architect

"Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light"

Le Corbusier, Architect

"A house is a machine for living in"

Le Corbusier, Architect

"Thanking you once more, I want to wish you the best of luck for your future life and to conclude by saying to you: Dream your dreams and may they come true!"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"Instead of explaining the sober facts of mechanics and electricity, I want to say a few words about the debt which we owe to youth; and with your permission I shall consider you as representing here not only the academic youth of Sweden nor even of Europe but also of America"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"It is inevitable that many ideas of the young mind will later have to give way to the hard realities of life"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep"

Le Corbusier, Architect

"The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen"

Paul Klee, Artist

"He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise"

Paul Klee, Artist

"Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will"

Paul Klee, Artist

"Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in there having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved free of corruption from an early age"

Paul Klee, Artist

"I am sure my fellow-scientists will agree with me if I say that whatever we were able to achieve in our later years had its origin in the experiences of our youth and in the hopes and wishes which were formed before and during our time as students"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"But these realities will make themselves felt soon enough and while I am certainly not asking you to close your eyes to the experiences of earlier generations, I want to advise you not to conform too soon and to resist the pressure of practical necessity"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed"

Paul Klee, Artist

"To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers"

Paul Klee, Artist

"The worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art"

Paul Klee, Artist

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk"

Paul Klee, Artist

"It seems that this situation is not restricted to science but is more generally human"

Felix Bloch, Scientist

"Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter"

Paul Klee, Artist

"The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions"

Paul Klee, Artist

"One does not lash hat lies at a distance. The foibles that we ridicule must at least be a little bit our own. Only then will the work be a part of our own flesh. The garden must be weeded"

Paul Klee, Artist

"Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see"

Paul Klee, Artist

"I wanted to write a novel. At 12 I knew, I am a writer. I said it to nobody"

Peter Bichsel, Writer

"I thus decided to leave the university forever and tried to find an industrial job in the United States"

Richard Ernst, Scientist

"I became almost immediately fascinated by the possibilities of trying out all conceivable reactions with them, some leading to explosions, others to unbearable poisoning of the air in our house, frightening my parents"

Richard Ernst, Scientist

"A brief visit to Nepal started my insatiable love for Asian art"

Richard Ernst, Scientist

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