Max Nordau

Hysteria and degeneration have always existed; but they formerly showed themselves sporadically, and had no importance in the life of the whole…

— Max Nordau

The artist writes, paints, sings or dances the burden of some idea or feeling off his mind.

— Max Nordau

“Degenerates are not always criminals, anarchists, and pronounced lunatics; They are often authors and artists.”

— Max Nordau

It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.

— Max Nordau

If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble…

— Max Nordau

Degenerates are not always criminals, prostitutes, anarchists and pronounced lunatics; they are often authors and artists

— Max Nordau

We find collected in this book [The Bible] the superstitious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with indistinct echoes of Indian…

— Max Nordau

Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles... respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons, the…

— Max Nordau

How dare the smooth talkers, the clever official blabbers, open their mouths and boast of progress. . . . Here they hold…

— Max Nordau

Let me tell you the following words as if I were showing you the rungs of a ladder leading upward and upward:…

— Max Nordau

[H]istory is a melodrama on the theme of parasitism, characterized by scenes that are exciting or dull, as the case may be,…

— Max Nordau

By the end of the 20th Century there will be a generation to whom it will not be injurious to read a…

— Max Nordau

The first condition a community should set, if it aspires to be a nation, is to own the land whereon it lives,…

— Max Nordau