Theodor Fontane's best quotes
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: That is too wide a field. · Words of farewell must be short, like declarations of love. · Between arrogance and humility stands a third thing to which life belongs: courage.. (Updated Jun 14, 2026.)
From the 'wide field' of Effi Briest to The Stechlin, Cécile and the Rambles through the March of Brandenburg: Fontane's best-known lines, each with the work and chapter.
Automatically translated (original in Deutsch). See the original
Top 13
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1
That is too wide a field.
Effi Briest (1895): old Briest's favourite phrase, in chapters 5, 15, 22 and 36.
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2
Words of farewell must be short, like declarations of love.
Cécile (1887), chapter 16.
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3
Between arrogance and humility stands a third thing to which life belongs: courage.
Cécile (1887), chapter 18.
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4
Letter-writing is like summer lightning: it all flashes away and the storm never comes.
Cécile (1887), chapter 17.
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5
Courage is good, but endurance is better. Endurance is what matters most.
The Stechlin (1898), chapter 4.
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6
'Free, but not cheeky' – that's my motto.
The Stechlin (1898), chapter 6.
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7
Marvelling is an art too. It takes something to recognise greatness as great.
The Stechlin (1898), chapter 29.
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8
The most human thing we have is language.
Irretrievable (1891), chapter 13.
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9
He who was born to hang will not drown.
Effi Briest (1895), chapter 15: Crampas.
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10
The heart remains a child.
Rambles through the March of Brandenburg, 'The Wendish Spree'.
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11
The magic always lies in the detail.
Letters to Georg Friedlaender.
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12
He who sees too much and too sharply also sees wrongly.
Letter to Paul Schlenther, 7 March 1890.
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13
Oh learn to think with the heart, and learn to feel with the mind.
Sayings, in Poems.
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