Foxes in a Vineyard Quotes

“You may be right, Count Falkenstein. Perhaps it does offend against our obvious interests, against of the King and our own, if we display such boundless sympathy for (Benjamin) Franklin and do our best to help him and his rebels. Nonetheless, there is perhaps a deeper wisdom in our attitude than if we were to cover him with abuse and to proceed to attack him from all sides. Since we cannot hold up the progressive spirit of the times, we are assisting it in its advance. We are sawing at the branch on which we are sitting because we know that it is destined to fall”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard

“It is easy to possess a conscience, Monsieur, when one only needs to talk or write about it. But the man, who has to act is constantly faced with the necessity, if he wishes to deal justly with one person, of being unjust to somebody else.”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard

“For a moment, he seemed to be falling into an abyss, on the verge of an unprecedented inner collapse. All his life he had been persuaded that what a man appeared to be was more important than what he was. This was the principle, on which he had based his whole existence, both his outward career and his secret thoughts. It was not what one admitted to oneself that mattered, but what one expressed in public; not the money one actually possessed, but the money one spent when others were there to see one spend it. The ideals a man carried in his hearth were of no account compared with those he acknowledged to the world. That had been Pierre´s credo.”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard

“Dacă nu mori tânăr, uneori trebuie să te contrazici.”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard

“În el pulsa aversiunea profundă a omului înțelept și omenos împotriva unui lucru atât de inutil, complet stupid și atavic precum războiul. Dintre numeroasele jocuri stupide ale oamenilor, războiul i se părea cel mai stupid și mai costisitor.”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard

“Nu avea niciun sens să se simtă furios. Trebuie să iei viața așa cum e: stupidă, minunată, inteligentă, rea, nebunească și foarte, foarte plăcută. Trebuie să accepți slăbiciunile oamenilor ca pe un dat, să le iei în calcul și să le folosești pentru cauza nobilă.”
― Lion Feuchtwanger, Foxes in a Vineyard