Quotes by Friedrich Durrenmatt

About Friedrich Durrenmatt:

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Nothing that has been thought can ever be taken back.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

The problems of all of humanity can only be solved by all of humanity.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

You can't take back an act you were able to think.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

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

Friedrich Durrenmatt

There are thoughts we must not think.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

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

Friedrich Durrenmatt

One does not set fire to a world which is already lost.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

A story has been thought through to the end when it has taken the worst possible turn.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

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

Friedrich Durrenmatt

The savages don't have atom bombs.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

There is a moment when nothing can be wiped out and left behind any more, when there is only reality and reality is horrifying.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Resistance at all cost is the most senseless act there is.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

The only remedy against hunger is reasonable birth control.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

The evolution of humans can not only be seen as the grand total of their wars; it is also defined by the evolution of the human mind and the development of the human consciousness.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Der Schiksal der Menschen wird davon abhängen, ob sich die Politik endlich bequemt, das Leben eines jeden heilig zu nehmen, oder ob die Hure weiterhin für jene auf die Straße geht, denen nichts heilig ist. Die Dame muß sich entscheiden.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

A writer doesn’t solve problems. He allows them to emerge.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Truth is always a delusion.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

Author Bio

  • NameFriedrich Durrenmatt
  • DescriptionSwiss author and dramatist
  • BornJanuary 5, 1921
  • DiedDecember 14, 1990
  • CountrySwitzerland
  • ProfessionPlaywright; Writer; Painter
  • WorksThe Physicists; The Visit
  • AwardsAustrian State Prize For European Literature; Georg Büchner Prize; Schiller Memorial Prize;