Meandering forever . . .

Today is the birthday of Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856) writer and poet. He is best known as Heinrich Heine and for his lyric poetry, especially his Book of Songs. Many of poem were set to music in the form of lieder (art songs) by such renowned composers as Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and Richard Wagner.

Here is another author whose books were banned and burned.

Among the thousands of books burned on Berlin's Opernplatz in 1933, following the Nazi raid on the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, were works by Heinrich Heine. To commemorate the terrible event, one of the most famous lines of Heine's 1821 play "Almansor" was engraved in the ground at the site: "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.") *quote source (1)

"The men of action are, after all, only the unconscious instruments of the men of thought." - Heinrich Heine

"When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on." - Heinrich Heine

"Ask me not what I have, but what I am." - Heinrich Heine

"Experience is a good school. But the fees are high." - Heinrich Heine

Heine stamp image source (1)