Create Yours

Top 20 Joseph Roth Quotes (2025 Update)

Joseph Roth Quote: “Only the small things in life are important.”

1. “Only the small things in life are important.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “A lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just badly written about.”

2. “A lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just badly written about.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “A moving shadow means more to us than a body at rest. We are no longer taken in by a fixed grin. We know that only death has a rictus.”

3. “A moving shadow means more to us than a body at rest. We are no longer taken in by a fixed grin. We know that only death has a rictus.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “That was how things were back then. Anything that grew took its time growing, and anything that perished took a long time to be forgotten. But everything that had once existed left its traces, and people lived on memories just as they now live on the ability to forget quickly and emphatically.”

4. “That was how things were back then. Anything that grew took its time growing, and anything that perished took a long time to be forgotten. But everything that had once existed left its traces, and people lived on memories just as they now live on the ability to forget quickly and emphatically.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “I think it’s our unique product selection and the idea that everything we sell only can be purchased at Ikea.”

5. “I think it’s our unique product selection and the idea that everything we sell only can be purchased at Ikea.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “On Sundays the world is as bright and empty as a balloon.”

6. “On Sundays the world is as bright and empty as a balloon.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “I believe that my observations have always led me to find that the so-called realist moves about the world with a closed mind, ringed as it were with concrete and cement, and that the so-called romantic is like an unfenced garden in and out of which truth can wander at will.”

7. “I believe that my observations have always led me to find that the so-called realist moves about the world with a closed mind, ringed as it were with concrete and cement, and that the so-called romantic is like an unfenced garden in and out of which truth can wander at will.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “I am not an encore, not a pudding, I am the main dish.”

8. “I am not an encore, not a pudding, I am the main dish.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “There is a fear of voluptuousness that is itself voluptuous, just as a certain fear of death can itself be deadly.”

9. “There is a fear of voluptuousness that is itself voluptuous, just as a certain fear of death can itself be deadly.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “I am alone. My heart beats only for myself. The strikers mean nothing to me. I have nothing in common with the mob, nor with individuals. I am a cold person. In the war I did not feel I was part of my company. We all lay in the same mud and waited for the same death. But I could think only about my own life and death. I would step over corpses and it oftened saddened me that I could feel no pain.”

10. “I am alone. My heart beats only for myself. The strikers mean nothing to me. I have nothing in common with the mob, nor with individuals. I am a cold person. In the war I did not feel I was part of my company. We all lay in the same mud and waited for the same death. But I could think only about my own life and death. I would step over corpses and it oftened saddened me that I could feel no pain.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “That is how a farmer walks across the soil in spring – and later, in summer, the traces of his steps are obscured by the billowing richness of the wheat he once sowed.”

11. “That is how a farmer walks across the soil in spring – and later, in summer, the traces of his steps are obscured by the billowing richness of the wheat he once sowed.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “Anyone called upon to view misery will view criminality differently. All state officials should be required to spend a month serving in a homeless shelter to learn love.”

12. “Anyone called upon to view misery will view criminality differently. All state officials should be required to spend a month serving in a homeless shelter to learn love.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “Every year, on the Emperor’s birthday, he makes a resolution to begin a new life and not get into debt. And so he gets drunk. And comes home late at night, stands in the kitchen with drawn sword, and commands an entire regiment. The pots are platoons, the teacups are units, the plates are companies. Simon Demant is a colonel, a colonel in the service of Franz Joseph I.”

13. “Every year, on the Emperor’s birthday, he makes a resolution to begin a new life and not get into debt. And so he gets drunk. And comes home late at night, stands in the kitchen with drawn sword, and commands an entire regiment. The pots are platoons, the teacups are units, the plates are companies. Simon Demant is a colonel, a colonel in the service of Franz Joseph I.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “Our grandfathers didn’t leave us much strength, not enough strength to live with, but just about enough to die a meaningless death. Ach!”

14. “Our grandfathers didn’t leave us much strength, not enough strength to live with, but just about enough to die a meaningless death. Ach!”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “And in the evening concealed fluorescent tubes light the room so evenly that it is no longer illuminated, it is a pool of luminosity.”

15. “And in the evening concealed fluorescent tubes light the room so evenly that it is no longer illuminated, it is a pool of luminosity.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “I might be capable of making figures that have heart, conscience, passion, emotion and decency. But there’s no call for that at all in the world. People are only interested in monsters and freaks, so I give them their monsters. Monsters are what they want!”

16. “I might be capable of making figures that have heart, conscience, passion, emotion and decency. But there’s no call for that at all in the world. People are only interested in monsters and freaks, so I give them their monsters. Monsters are what they want!”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “Morning birdsong filled the room. For all his high opinion of birds, privileged among God’s creatures, still, deep in his heart, the Emperor did not trust them, just as he did not trust artists.”

17. “Morning birdsong filled the room. For all his high opinion of birds, privileged among God’s creatures, still, deep in his heart, the Emperor did not trust them, just as he did not trust artists.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “In no time, the platoon were on their feet in front of him, formed up into two ranks, and it struck him suddenly, and probably for the first time in his military career, that these men with their drilled precision were dead parts of dead machines that didn’t produce anything.”

18. “In no time, the platoon were on their feet in front of him, formed up into two ranks, and it struck him suddenly, and probably for the first time in his military career, that these men with their drilled precision were dead parts of dead machines that didn’t produce anything.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “Count Chojnicki was curious. No other passion than curiosity sent him out into the world, drew him to the tables of the great gaming halls, sequestered him behind the walls of his old hunting pavilion, sat him down on the parliamentarians’ benches, determined that he would return home every spring, compelled him to throw his regular parties, and prevented him from cutting his own throat. It was curiosity that kept him alive.”

19. “Count Chojnicki was curious. No other passion than curiosity sent him out into the world, drew him to the tables of the great gaming halls, sequestered him behind the walls of his old hunting pavilion, sat him down on the parliamentarians’ benches, determined that he would return home every spring, compelled him to throw his regular parties, and prevented him from cutting his own throat. It was curiosity that kept him alive.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “His heart was pounding. But his soul was easy.”

20. “His heart was pounding. But his soul was easy.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “That is originally why the concept evolved to include accessories. We found that furniture sells better when you show it with accessories.”

21. “That is originally why the concept evolved to include accessories. We found that furniture sells better when you show it with accessories.”

— Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth Quote: “He felt light, lighter than ever in all his years. He had severed all relationships. It occurred to him that he had been alone for years. He had been alone since that moment when desire had ceased between his woman and himself. He was alone -alone. Wife and children had surrounded him and had hindered him from bearing his pain. Like useless poultices that do not aid healing, they had lain upon his wounds and had merely covered them.”

22. “He felt light, lighter than ever in all his years. He had severed all relationships. It occurred to him that he had been alone for years. He had been alone since that moment when desire had ceased between his woman and himself. He was alone -alone. Wife and children had surrounded him and had hindered him from bearing his pain. Like useless poultices that do not aid healing, they had lain upon his wounds and had merely covered them.”

— Joseph Roth

23. “Is a people that elects as its president an icon that has never read a book all that far away from burning books itself?”

— Joseph Roth

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 20 Joseph Roth Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.