Top 180 Heinrich Heine Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “The foolish race of mankind are swarming below in the night; they shriek and rage and quarrel – and all of them are right.”

— Heinrich Heine

102. “It is a common phenomenon that just the prettiest girls find it so difficult to get a man.”

— Heinrich Heine

103. “It is only kindred griefs that draw forth our tears, and each weeps really for himself.”

— Heinrich Heine

104. “In politics, as in life, we must above all things wish only for the attainable.”

— Heinrich Heine

105. “Christianity is an idea, and as such is indestructible and immortal, like every idea.”

— Heinrich Heine

106. “Wherever a great soul utters its thoughts, there is Golgatha.”

— Heinrich Heine

107. “Seriousness shows itself more majestically when laughter leads the way.”

— Heinrich Heine

108. “Sweet May hath come to love us, Flowers, trees, their blossoms don; And through the blue heavens above us The very clouds move on.”

— Heinrich Heine

109. “Be entirely tolerant or not at all; follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess.”

— Heinrich Heine

110. “The fountain of love is the rose and the lily, the sun and the dove.”

— Heinrich Heine

111. “In blissful dream, in silent night, There came to me, with magic might, With magic might, my own sweet love, Into my little room above.”

— Heinrich Heine

112. “The lotus flower is troubled At the sun’s resplendent light; With sunken head and sadly She dreamily waits for the night.”

— Heinrich Heine

113. “She resembles the Venus de Milo: she is very old, has no teeth, and has white spots on her yellow skin.”

— Heinrich Heine

114. “The arrow belongs not to the archer when it has once left the bow; the word no longer belongs to the speaker when it has once passed his lips, especially when it has been multiplied by the press.”

— Heinrich Heine

115. “Our sweetest hopes rise blooming. And then again are gone, They bloom and fade alternate, And so it goes rolling on. I know it, and it troubles My life, my love, my rest, My heart is wise and witty, And it bleeds within my breast.”

— Heinrich Heine

116. “That was only the beginning – where one burns books, one will finally also burn people.”

— Heinrich Heine

117. “Oh what lies there are in kisses! And their guile so well prepared! Sweet the snaring is; but this is Sweeter still, to be ensnared.”

— Heinrich Heine

118. “If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.”

— Heinrich Heine

119. “Das war ein vorspeil nur; That was only a prelude; dort wo man Buecher verbrennt, Where one burns books, vebrennt man auch am Ende One will also burn people Menchen. Eventually.”

— Heinrich Heine

120. “Every age has its problem, by solving which humanity is helped forward.”

— Heinrich Heine

121. “The eyes of spring, so azure, Are peeping from the ground; They are the darling violets, That I in nosegays bound.”

— Heinrich Heine

122. “Oh, they loved dearly: their souls kissed, they kissed with their eyes, they were both but one single kiss.”

— Heinrich Heine

123. “Reform Judaism is like mock turtle soup-turtle soup without the turtle.”

— Heinrich Heine

124. “The people have no ear, either for rhythm or music, and their unnatural passion for pianoforte playing and singing is thus all the more repulsive. There is nothing on earth more terrible than English music, except English painting.”

— Heinrich Heine

125. “Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.”

— Heinrich Heine

126. “He only profits from praise who values criticism.”

— Heinrich Heine

127. “One must, it is true, forgive one’s enemies – but not before they have been hanged.”

— Heinrich Heine

128. “And over the pond are sailing Two swans all white as snow; Sweet voices mysteriously wailing Pierce through me as onward they go. They sail along, and a ringing Sweet melody rises on high; And when the swans begin singing, They presently must die.”

— Heinrich Heine

129. “Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.”

— Heinrich Heine

130. “In these times we fight for ideas and newspapers are our fortress.”

— Heinrich Heine

131. “A pine tree standeth lonely In the North on an upland bare; It standeth whitely shrouded With snow, and sleepeth there. It dreameth of a Palm tree Which far in the East alone, In the mournful silence standeth On its ridge of burning stone.”

— Heinrich Heine

132. “There is one thing on earth more terrible than English music, and that is English painting.”

— Heinrich Heine

133. “Genius: 1. to believe your own thought. To believe that what is true for you is ultimately true. 2. a sledgehammer. 3. the fruit of labour and thought. 4. soul. 5. the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. 6. something one can become.”

— Heinrich Heine

134. “The nightingale appear’d the first, And as her melody she sang, The apple into blossom burst, To life the grass and violets sprang.”

— Heinrich Heine

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

135. “As the moon’s fair image quaketh In the raging waves of ocean, Whilst she, in the vault of heaven, Moves with silent peaceful motion.”

— Heinrich Heine

136. “And once again we plighted our troth, And titter’d, caress’d, kiss’d so dearly.”

— Heinrich Heine

137. “Silence can be defined as conversation with an Englishman.”

— Heinrich Heine

138. “Glow-worms on the ground are moving, As if in the torch-dance circling.”

— Heinrich Heine

139. “Oh, what lies there are in kisses.”

— Heinrich Heine

140. “Oh fair, oh sweet and holy as dew at morning tide, I gaze on thee, and yearnings, sad in my bosom hide.”

— Heinrich Heine

141. “The cloudlets are lazily sailing O’er the blue Atlantic sea; And mid the twilight there hovers A shadowy figure o’er me...”

— Heinrich Heine

142. “All our contemporary philosophers perhaps without knowing it are looking through eyeglasses that Baruch Spinoza polished. Spinoza was a philosopher who earned his livelihood by grinding lenses.”

— Heinrich Heine

143. “Don’t send a poet to London.”

— Heinrich Heine

144. “The beauteous eyes of the spring’s fair night With comfort are downward gazing.”

— Heinrich Heine

145. “Twelve Dancings are dancing, and taking no rest, And closely their hands together are press’d; And soon as a dance has come to a close, Another begins, and each merrily goes.”

— Heinrich Heine

146. “Nothing is more futile than theorizing about music. No doubt there are laws, mathematically strict laws, but these laws are not music; they are only its conditions? The essence of music is revelation.”

— Heinrich Heine

147. “The men of the past had convictions, while we moderns have only opinions.”

— Heinrich Heine

148. “The Blossoms and leaves in plenty From the apple tree fall each day; The merry breezes approach them, And with them merrily play.”

— Heinrich Heine

149. “Sweet May lies fresh before us, To life the young flowers leap, And through the Heaven’s blue o’er us The rosy cloudlets sweep.”

— Heinrich Heine

150. “Graves they say are warm’d by glory; Foolish words and empty story.”

— Heinrich Heine

Featured in: Quotes About Stories