Quotes by Georg Brandes

About Georg Brandes:

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture. At the age of 30, Brandes formulated the principles of a new realism and naturalism, condemning hyper-aesthetic writing and fantasy in literature. According to Brandes, literature should be an organ "of the great thoughts of liberty and the progress of humanity". His literary goals were shared by many authors, among them the Norwegian realist playwright Henrik Ibsen.
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

Poor is the power of the lead that becomes bullets compared to the power of the hot metal that becomes types.

Georg Brandes

But when I was twelve years old I caught my first strong glimpse of one of the fundamental forces of existence, whose votary I was destined to be for life - namely, Beauty.

Georg Brandes

I was at home then in the world of figures, but not in that of values.

Georg Brandes

Six hours a day I lived under school discipline in active intercourse with people none of whom were known to those at home, and the other hours of the twenty-four I spent at home, or with relatives of the people at home, none of whom were known to an...

Georg Brandes

I became an ardent, but never a specially good, dancer.

Georg Brandes

Just about this time, when in imagination I was so great a warrior, I had good use in real life for more strength, as I was no longer taken to school by the nurse, but instead had myself to protect my brother, two years my junior.

Georg Brandes

On the whole, the world was friendly. It chiefly depended on whether one were good or not.

Georg Brandes

My first experiences of academic friendship made me smile in after years when I looked back on them. But my circle of acquaintances had gradually grown so large that it was only natural new friendships should grow out of it.

Georg Brandes

I was a town child, it is true, but that did not prevent me enjoying open-air life, with plants and animals.

Georg Brandes

I was not given to looking at life in a rosy light.

Georg Brandes

School is a foretaste of life.

Georg Brandes

A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion.

Georg Brandes

Among the delights of Summer were picnics to the woods.

Georg Brandes

Any feeling that I was enriching my mind from those surrounding me was unfortunately rare with me.

Georg Brandes

Birth was something that came quite unexpectedly, and afterwards there was one child more in the house.

Georg Brandes

But my doubt would not be overcome. Kierkegaard had declared that it was only to the consciousness of sin that Christianity was not horror or madness. For me it was sometimes both.

Georg Brandes

He who does not understand a joke, he does not understand Danish.

Georg Brandes

I came into the world two months too soon, I was in such a hurry.

Georg Brandes

I encountered among my comrades the most varied human traits, from frankness to reserve, from goodness, uprightness and kindness, to brutality and baseness.

Georg Brandes

I was always hearing that I was pale and thin and small.

Georg Brandes

Author Bio

  • NameGeorg Brandes
  • DescriptionDanish literature critic and scholar
  • BornFebruary 4, 1842
  • DiedFebruary 19, 1927
  • CountryDenmark
  • ProfessionLiterary Critic; Philosopher; Literary Historian; Autobiographer; Writer