Georg Brandes

“One should not be a gentleman in art.”

“All progress begins with a blasphemy.”

“That which is not literature is journalism.”

“The fact that a book is famous is enough to scare me off.”

“What is great is not to be new, but to be true.”

“It is foolish to be tragic. Life is not tragic.”

“What is called 'world history' is the history of the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.”

“A writer's first duty is to be himself.”

“To be neutral is to be a traitor to the truth.”

“The purpose of literature is to put problems under debate.”

“He who does not understand a joke, is a joke.”

“There is no more certain sign of a narrow mind, of a bad heart, of a tyrannical disposition, than the love of digging into the past of a woman.”

“He who does not roar, will not be heard.”

“To rebel is a man's highest duty.”

“The free man is the man who is not afraid to go to the end of his thought.”