Alfred Polgar

Alfred Polgar (né Polak; 17 October 1873 – 24 April 1955) was an Austrian-born Jewish columnist, theatre critic, writer and occasionally translator.

Quotes

• In Berlin the situation is serious but not desperate; in Vienna, the situation is desperate but not serious.
  • Reported in: John Derbyshire, "Desperate But Not Serious". The Straggler (National Review), vol. 112 (2 April 2012): "The point of the quip is to show the different outlooks of Prussians and Austrians: the first soldiering on to the end in dogged hope, the second in fatalistic acknowledgment that while the curtain may indeed be about to fall, there is no point forgoing life's normal pleasures in the interim." A different translation is given by Gilbert Carr, "'Hopeless but not serious'", letter to The Irish Times (20 August 2019), citing the Viennese Kraus Archive.

See also

• Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965)