Friedrich Schiller Quotes
- It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in. - View Quote Details on It hinders the creative work of the mind if the…
- The key to education is the experience of beauty. - View Quote Details on The key to education is the experience of beauty.
- There are three lessons I would write,
Three words as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light
Upon the hearts of men. - View Quote Details on There are three lessons I would write,
Three words as with… - Der Menscheit Würde ist in Eure Hand gegeben, bewahret Sie!
Sie sinkt mit euch! Mit euch wird sie sich heben! - View Quote Details on Der Menscheit Würde ist in Eure Hand gegeben, bewahret Sie!… - Nothing leads to good that is not natural. - View Quote Details on Nothing leads to good that is not natural.
- Life is only error,
And death is knowledge. - View Quote Details on Life is only error,
And death is knowledge. - Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor. - View Quote Details on Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its…
- Virtue has her heroes too
As well as Fame and Fortune. - View Quote Details on Virtue has her heroes too
As well as Fame and Fortune. - I am better than my reputation. - View Quote Details on I am better than my reputation.
- I am called
The richest monarch in the Christian world;
The sun in my dominion never sets. - View Quote Details on I am called
The richest monarch in the Christian world;
The sun… - What are hopes, what are plans? - View Quote Details on What are hopes, what are plans?
- The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world. - View Quote Details on The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is…
- Each state of the human mind has some parable in the physical creation by which it is shadowed forth; nor is it only artists and poets, but even the most abstract thinkers that have drawn from this source. Lively activity we name fire; time is a stream that rolls on, sweeping all before it; eternity is a circle; a mystery is hid in midnight gloom, and truth dwells in the sun. Nay, I begin to believe that even the future destiny of the human race is prefigured in the dark oracular utterances of bodily creation. - View Quote Details on Each state of the human mind has some parable in…
- A noble heart will always capitulate to reason. - View Quote Details on A noble heart will always capitulate to reason.
- What one refuses in a minute
No eternity will return. - View Quote Details on What one refuses in a minute
No eternity will return. - Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him. - View Quote Details on Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him.
- What’s old collapses, times change,
And new life blossoms in the ruins. - View Quote Details on What’s old collapses, times change,
And new life blossoms in the… - When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath — or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine, with God’s help! - View Quote Details on When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I…
- The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it. - View Quote Details on The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it.
- He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times. - View Quote Details on He who has done his best for his own time…
- The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself. - View Quote Details on The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.
- The reason passes, like the heart, through certain epochs and transitions, but its development is not so often portrayed. Men seem to have been satisfied with unfolding the passions in their extremes, their aberration, and their results, without considering how closely they are bound up with the intellectual constitution of the individual. - View Quote Details on The reason passes, like the heart, through certain epochs and…
- The dictates of the heart are the voice of fate. - View Quote Details on The dictates of the heart are the voice of fate.
- It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans. - View Quote Details on It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from…
- The voice of our age seems by no means favorable to art, at all events to that kind of art to which my inquiry is directed. The course of events has given a direction to the genius of the time that threatens to remove it continually further from the ideal of art. For art has to leave reality, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness; for art is the daughter of freedom, and it requires its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not by that of matter. But in our day it is necessity, neediness, that prevails, and bends a degraded humanity under its iron yoke. Utility is the great idol of the time, to which all powers do homage and all subjects are subservient. In this great balance of utility, the spiritual service of art has no weight, and, deprived of all encouragement, it vanishes from the noisy Vanity Fair of our time. The very spirit of philosophical inquiry itself robs the imagination of one promise after another, and the frontiers of art are narrowed, in proportion as the limits of science are enlarged. - View Quote Details on The voice of our age seems by no means favorable…
- To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine. - View Quote Details on To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject…
- They have founded the whole structure of their happiness on these very illusions, which ought to be combated and dissipated by the light of knowledge, and they would think they were paying too dearly for a truth which begins by robbing them of all that has value in their sight. It would be necessary that they should be already sages to love wisdom: a truth that was felt at once by him to whom philosophy owes its name. - View Quote Details on They have founded the whole structure of their happiness on…
- As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe. - View Quote Details on As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the…
- The present age has witnessed an extraordinary increase of a thinking public, by the facilities afforded to the diffusion of reading; the former happy resignation to ignorance begins to make way for a state of half-enlightenment, and few persons are willing to remain in the condition in which their birth has placed then. - View Quote Details on The present age has witnessed an extraordinary increase of a…
- Joy, in Nature’s wide dominion,
Mightiest cause of all is found;
And ’tis joy that moves the pinion,
When the wheel of time goes round - View Quote Details on Joy, in Nature’s wide dominion,
Mightiest cause of all is found;
And… - Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht. - View Quote Details on Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht.
- Threefold the stride of Time, from first to last!
Loitering slow, the Future creepeth —
Arrow-swift, the Present sweepeth —
And motionless forever stands the Past. - View Quote Details on Threefold the stride of Time, from first to last!… - Mankind is made great or little by its own will. - View Quote Details on Mankind is made great or little by its own will.
- A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. - View Quote Details on A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled…
- I speak with the Eternal through the instrument of nature, — through the world’s history: I read the soul of the artist in his Apollo. - View Quote Details on I speak with the Eternal through the instrument of nature,…
- It is easy to give advice from a port of safety. - View Quote Details on It is easy to give advice from a port of…
- Pain is short, and joy is eternal. - View Quote Details on Pain is short, and joy is eternal.
- Truth suffers no loss if a vehement youth fails in finding it, in the same way that virtue and religion suffer no detriment if a criminal denies them. - View Quote Details on Truth suffers no loss if a vehement youth fails in…
- O who knows what slumbers in the background of the times? - View Quote Details on O who knows what slumbers in the background of the…
- Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine. - View Quote Details on Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the…
- Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without running into extremes; we have frequently to exhaust the part of error, and even of folly, before we work our way up to the noble goal of tranquil wisdom. - View Quote Details on Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without…
- The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty
That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain,
Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths,—all these have vanished;
They live no longer in the faith of reason. - View Quote Details on The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old… - In thy breast are the stars of thy fate. - View Quote Details on In thy breast are the stars of thy fate.
- Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives. - View Quote Details on Of all the possessions of this life fame is the…
- Joy, thou spark from Heav’n immortal,
Daughter of Elysium!
Drunk with fire, toward Heaven advancing
Goddess, to thy shrine we come.
Thy sweet magic brings together
What stern Custom spreads afar;
All men become brothers
Where thy happy wing-beats are. - View Quote Details on Joy, thou spark from Heav’n immortal,
Daughter of Elysium!
Drunk with fire,… - It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long. - View Quote Details on It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be…
- O the idea was childish, but divinely beautiful. - View Quote Details on O the idea was childish, but divinely beautiful.
- In the society where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully. - View Quote Details on In the society where people are just parts in a…
- Welcome, all ye myriad creatures!
Brethren, take the kiss of love! - View Quote Details on Welcome, all ye myriad creatures!
Brethren, take the kiss of love! - Freedom can occur only through education. - View Quote Details on Freedom can occur only through education.
- Man is created free, and is free,
Though he be born in chains. - View Quote Details on Man is created free, and is free,
Though he be born… - Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart. - View Quote Details on Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart.
- Der Krieg ernährt den Krieg. - View Quote Details on Der Krieg ernährt den Krieg.
- Joy from truth’s own glass of fire
Sweetly on the searcher smiles;
Lest on virtue’s steeps he tire,
Joy the tedious path beguiles.
High on faith’s bright hill before us,
See her banner proudly wave!
Joy, too, swells the angels’ chorus,—
Bursts the bondage of the grave! - View Quote Details on Joy from truth’s own glass of fire
Sweetly on the searcher… - The will of man is his happiness. - View Quote Details on The will of man is his happiness.
- Who dares impede my progress? Who presume
The spirit to control which guideth me?
Still must the arrow wing its destined flight!
Where danger is, there must Johanna be;
Nor now, nor here, am I foredoomed to fall;
Our monarch’s royal brow I first must see
Invested with the round of sovereignty.
No hostile power can rob me of my life,
Till I’ve accomplished the commands of God. - View Quote Details on Who dares impede my progress? Who presume
The spirit to… - The strong man is strongest when alone. - View Quote Details on The strong man is strongest when alone.
- I am better than my reputation. - View Quote Details on I am better than my reputation.
- I feel an army in my fist. - View Quote Details on I feel an army in my fist.
- Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual. - View Quote Details on Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both…
- Every true genius is bound to be naive. - View Quote Details on Every true genius is bound to be naive.
- On the mountains there is freedom!
The world is perfect everywhere,
Save where man comes with his torment. - View Quote Details on On the mountains there is freedom!
The world is perfect everywhere,
Save… - The empire of Saturnus is gone by;
Lord of the secret birth of things is he;
Within the lap of earth, and in the depths
Of the imagination dominates;
And his are all things that eschew the light.
The time is o’er of brooding and contrivance,
For Jupiter, the lustrous, lordeth now,
And the dark work, complete of preparation,
He draws by force into the realm of light.
Now must we hasten on to action, ere
The scheme, and most auspicious positure
Parts o’er my head, and takes once more its flight,
For the heaven’s journey still, and adjourn not. - View Quote Details on The empire of Saturnus is gone by;
Lord of the… - A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast. - View Quote Details on A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.
- Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action. - View Quote Details on Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the…
- You saw his weakness, and he will never forgive you. - View Quote Details on You saw his weakness, and he will never forgive you.
About Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 - 9 May 1805 ) was a German poet, historian, dramatist, and playwright; usually known as Friedrich Schiller.
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