Harry Graf Kessler

“What is ugly about life is that it so often only provides uneasy half solutions that are so seldom pure and tragic ones.”

“It seems to me we are now, since 1789, going through the same sort of process of regeneration the Roman world went through between 300 and 500. It is only to be hoped all civilization will not again be destroyed by the anarchists.”

“How rich our German life is compared to France or England: what an abundance of social types and customs with completely different origins... Germany is a world, whereas England and France, with their stereotypically divided three social classes, are but enlarged villages... what a stage for a Balzac.”

“Until we have created a romance of peace that would equal that of war, violence will not disappear from people's lives.”

“I am utterly, consummately intense, wearing sunflowers and poppies and dahlias in my buttonhole.”