Top 35 Georg Büchner Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Murder begins where self-defense ends.”

— Georg Büchner

2. “Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children.”

— Georg Büchner

3. “Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”

— Georg Büchner

4. “The stars are scattered all over the sky like shimmering tears, there must be great pain in the eye from which they trickled.”

— Georg Büchner

5. “Man is an abyss, and I turn giddy when I look down into it.”

— Georg Büchner

6. “Whoever finishes a revolution only halfway, digs his own grave.”

— Georg Büchner

7. “And for tired eyes every light is too bright, and for tired lips every breath too heavy, and for tired ears every word too much.”

— Georg Büchner

8. “Love is a peculiar thing.”

— Georg Büchner

9. “Only one thing abides: an infinite beauty that passes from form to form, eternally changed and revealed afresh.”

— Georg Büchner

10. “That is a long word: forever!”

— Georg Büchner

11. “The strides of humanity are slow, they can only be counted in centuries.”

— Georg Büchner

12. “Death is the most blessed dream.”

— Georg Büchner

13. “The life of the wealthy is one long Sunday.”

— Georg Büchner

14. “I’ll know how to die with courage; that is easier than living.”

— Georg Büchner

15. “Germany is now a field of cadavers, soon she will be a paradise.”

— Georg Büchner

16. “The world is chaos. Nothingness is the yet-to-be-born god of the world.”

— Georg Büchner

17. “One must love humanity in order to reach out into the unique essence of each individual: no one can be too low or too ugly.”

— Georg Büchner

18. “We have not made the Revolution, the Revolution has made us.”

— Georg Büchner

19. “Dying people often become childish.”

— Georg Büchner

20. “The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”

— Georg Büchner

21. “A good man with a good conscience doesn’t walk so fast.”

— Georg Büchner

22. “Revolution calls my name. I will soon dwell in nothingness, and my name will be in the Pantheon of history.”

— Georg Büchner

23. “The breath of an aristocrat is the death rattle of freedom.”

— Georg Büchner

24. “Revolution is like the daughters of Pelias: it cuts humanity to pieces in order to rejuvenate it.”

— Georg Büchner

25. “Government must be a transparent garment which tightly clings to the people’s body.”

— Georg Büchner

26. “The statue of Freedom has not been cast yet, the furnace is hot, we can all still burn our fingers.”

— Georg Büchner

27. “The sin is in our thoughts.”

— Georg Büchner

28. “The revolution must end and the republic must begin. In our constitution, right must take the place of duty, welfare that of virtue, and self-defense that of punishment. Everyone must be able to prevail and to live according to one’s own nature.”

— Georg Büchner

29. “The weapon of the Republic is terror, and virtue is its strength.”

— Georg Büchner

30. “Do you know, Valerio, that even the least among all humans is so great that life is far too short to love him?”

— Georg Büchner

31. “We are always on stage, even when we are stabbed in earnest at the end.”

— Georg Büchner

32. “The power of the people and the power of reason are one.”

— Georg Büchner

33. “People like us are unhappy in this world and in the next, I guess if we made it to heaven, wed have to help make it thunder.”

— Georg Büchner

34. “You women could make someone fall in love even with a lie.”

— Georg Büchner

35. “The state is therefore everyone; the rules within the state are laws which safeguard the welfare of all and which must originate from the welfare of all.”

— Georg Büchner

36. “How many women does one need to sing the scale of love all the way up and down?”

— Georg Büchner

37. “Supreme power rests in the will of all or of the majority.”

— Georg Büchner