Heinrich Focke (1890–1979) was a German aviation engineer and pioneer known for his contributions to helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft development. Co-founder of Focke-Wulf in 1924, he focused on civil aircraft like the successful Focke-Wulf A 16. Fascinated by helicopters, he established Focke-Achgelis in 1936, producing the Fa 223 Drache during World War II. Post-war, he continued advancing aviation technology, aiding in Germany’s aviation industry revival. Focke’s achievements earned him the Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1961, recognizing his significant impact on aviation history. His legacy persists in modern helicopter design and manufacturing, cementing his status as a pioneering figure in aviation.

Heinrich Focke Quotes

01. “Ask me not what I have, but what I am.”
— Heinrich Focke

02. “My honor is my loyalty.”
— Heinrich Focke

03. “And my father, after all, was a nationalist.”
— Heinrich Focke

04. “When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on.”
— Heinrich Focke

05. “There are more fools in the world than there are people.”
— Heinrich Focke

06. “Atheism is the last word of theism.”
— Heinrich Focke

07. “Of course God will forgive me; that’s His job.”
— Heinrich Focke

08. “God will forgive me; that’s his business.”
— Heinrich Focke

09. “True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.”
— Heinrich Focke

10. “He only profits from praise who values criticism.”
— Heinrich Focke

11. “I would like to give it a name: it is the great fortress of Europe.”
— Heinrich Focke

12. “The only thing that matters is that we stand firm.”
— Heinrich Focke

13. “There is no better way of elevating the novel than by making it into a construct which contains ideas.”
— Heinrich Focke

14. “Woman is at once apple and serpent.”
— Heinrich Focke

15. “One should forgive one’s enemies, but not before they are hanged.”
— Heinrich Focke

16. “Today, Germany is on the borders of Europe everywhere.”
— Heinrich Focke

17. “We know that these clashes with Asia and Jewry are necessary for evolution.”
— Heinrich Focke

18. “I understood that the will could not be improved before the mind had been enlightened.”
— Heinrich Focke

19. “In these times we fight for ideas and newspapers are our fortress.”
— Heinrich Focke

20. “Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.”
— Heinrich Focke

21. “Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one’s nose.”
— Heinrich Focke

22. “Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.”
— Heinrich Focke

23. “Goodness means the highest degree of popularity.”
— Heinrich Focke

24. “Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born is of course the miracle.”
— Heinrich Focke

25. “The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.”
— Heinrich Focke

26. “Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.”
— Heinrich Focke

27. “I do not know if she was virtuous, but she was ugly, and with a woman that is half the battle.”
— Heinrich Focke

28. “This depravation of our nature is nothing else but the blotting out of God’s image in us.”
— Heinrich Focke

29. “Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.”
— Heinrich Focke

30. “The men of action are, after all, only the unconscious instruments of the men of thought.”
— Heinrich Focke

31. “Christ rode on an ass, but now asses ride on Christ.”
— Heinrich Focke

32. “The trough was full and faithful Tray / Came out to drink one sultry day.”
— Heinrich Focke

33. “Oh, they loved dearly: their souls kissed, they kissed with their eyes, they were both but one single kiss.”
— Heinrich Focke

34. “Like a great poet, Nature knows how to produce the greatest effects with the most limited means.”
— Heinrich Focke

35. “In politics, as in life, we must above all things wish only for the attainable.”
— Heinrich Focke

36. “Control your fate or somebody else will.”
— Heinrich Focke

37. “The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.”
— Heinrich Focke

38. “I am not making spiteful assertions now but merely stating the facts-that, for instance, among Hungarian generals there is such a considerable percentage of men of German origin, who of course had, in most cases, to alter their names if they wanted to get anywhere.”
— Heinrich Focke

39. “Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men, and rocks them up to manhood; and this meager foster-mother remains their faithful companion throughout life.”
— Heinrich Focke

40. “Now it is just this world we like the best, the Germanic world, the world of Nordic life.”
— Heinrich Focke

41. “All of us, who are members of the Germanic peoples, can be happy and thankful that once in thousands of years fate has given us, from among the Germanic peoples, such a genius, a leader, our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, and you should be happy to be allowed to work with us.”
— Heinrich Focke

42. “In earlier religions the spirit of the time was expressed through the individual and confirmed by miracles. In modern religions the spirit is expressed through the many and confirmed by reason.”
— Heinrich Focke

43. “write down all sentences under quotations.”
— Heinrich Focke

44. “Whenever books are burned, men also in the end are burned.”
— Heinrich Focke

45. “When words leave off, music begins.”
— Heinrich Focke

46. “Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but, less by assimilation than by fiction.”
— Heinrich Focke

47. “Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people.”
— Heinrich Focke