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Heinrich Heine
(13 Dec 1797 - 17 Feb 1856)
German poet and critic.
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Science Quotes by Heinrich Heine (4 quotes)
All our contemporary philosophers perhaps without knowing it are looking through eyeglasses that Baruch Spinoza polished.
— Heinrich Heine
Quoted in Frank Heynick, Jews and Medicine: An Epic Saga (2002), 204. Heynick adds some background that, “Heine’s quote alludes to the fact that Spinoza earned his livelihood by grinding lenses.”
Ordinarily he is insane, but he has lucid moments when he is only stupid.
— Heinrich Heine
Describing “Savoye, a mediocre diplomat, appointed Ambassador to Frankfort by Lamartine in 1848.” Quoted from L'Esprit de Tout le Monde, in 'Foreign Wit and Humor: From Contemporaries', Current Opinion (Mar 1894), 15, No. 3, 292. This source credits only “Heine said”. Max John Herzberg more specifically credits “Heinrich Heine” in Insults : A Practical Anthology of Scathing Remarks and Acid Portraits (1941), 74.
Society is a republic. When an individual endeavors to lift himself above his fellows, he is dragged down by the mass, either by means of ridicule or of calumny. No one shall be more virtuous or more intellectually gifted than others. Whoever, by the irresistible force of genius, rises above the common herd is certain to be ostracized by society, which will pursue him with such merciless derision and detraction that at last he will be compelled to retreat into the solitude of his thoughts.
— Heinrich Heine
In Heinrich Heine: His Wit, Wisdom, Poetry (1892), 26.
The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.
— Heinrich Heine
In Heinrich Heinne and Charles Godfrey Leland (trans.), Pictures of Travel (1871), 183.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
