Lion Feuchtwanger

There's only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there's no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

— Lion Feuchtwanger

An author who sets about to depict events of the past that have run their course is suspected of wishing to avoid…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

From depicting the past, so goes the suspicion, it is a short step to glorifying the past.

— Lion Feuchtwanger

“Can you remember, Acte...how much easier our belief in Nero made life for us in the old days? And can you remember…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

Ever since my youth it has disturbed me that of the literary works that survived their own epoch, so many dealt with…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

“(Er) hat in unbegreiflicher Verblendung übersehen, daß ein Mensch auch ohne selbstständige Ideen und ohne Persönlichkeit in dem Augenblick Wesen und Inhalt…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

Both the historian and the novelist view history as the struggle of a tiny minority, able and determined to make judgments, which…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

After closely examining my conscience, I venture to state that in my historical novels I intended the content to be just as…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

“In itself it is nothing. Nothing but a book: parchment, colouring, ink. Yet the most perishable material is at the same time…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

I should add that it is open to debate whether what we call the writing of history these days is truly scientific.

— Lion Feuchtwanger

“I have sincerely tried not to deride the action of men, not to lament nor to abhor them. I have done all…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

Like the philosopher, the author views his task as one of establishing a clear connection between life and history, and of making…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

An action doesn't have to be wrong just because it is not logical. It doesn't have to be right just because it…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

“The word and the image mutually excluded each other. Joseph was a literary man to his very marrow; he put faith in…

— Lion Feuchtwanger

What is a historian, anyway? It is someone who uses facts to record the development of humanity.

— Lion Feuchtwanger

It is only the strong who are strengthened by suffering; the weak are made weaker.

— Lion Feuchtwanger

I have always made an effort to render every detail of my reality with the greatest accuracy; but I have never paid…

— Lion Feuchtwanger