146 Friedrich von Schiller Quotes

Friedrich von Schiller offers grand, thoughtful musings on truth, society and art that invite quiet contemplation.

I feel an army in my fist.
#1
To save all we must risk all.
#2
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.
#3
Did you think the lion was sleeping because he didn't roar?
#4
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The lemonade is weak, like your soul.
#5
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
There are three lessons I would write, Three words as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light Upon the hearts of men.
#6
Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht.
#7
Translation: World history is the world's court.
#8
What one refuses in a minute No eternity will return.
#9
What the inner voice says Will not disappoint the hoping soul.
#10
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
If you want to know yourself, Just look how others do it; If you want to understand others, Look into your own heart.
#11
Man is created free, and is free, Though he be born in chains.
#12
Virtue is no empty echo.
#13
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
O tender yearning, sweet hoping! The golden time of first love! The eye sees the open heaven, The heart is intoxicated with bliss; O that the beautiful time of young love Could remain green forever.
#14
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Appearance should never attain reality, And if nature conquers, then must art retire.
#15
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#16
Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield! Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason, Resplendent daughter of the head divine, Wise foundress of the system of the world, Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou, Bound to the tail of folly's uncurbed steed, Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd, Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss. Accursed, who striveth after noble ends, And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans! To the fool-king belongs the world.
#17
Pain is short, and joy is eternal.
#18
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
I am better than my reputation.
#19
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Life is only error, And death is knowledge.
#20
What are hopes, what are plans?
#21
Don't let your heart depend on things That ornament life in a fleeting way! He who possesses, let him learn to lose, He who is fortunate, let him learn pain.
#22
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
On the mountains there is freedom! The world is perfect everywhere, Save where man comes with his torment.
#23
Only through Beauty's morning gate, dost thou enter the land of Knowledge.
#24
The dignity of mankind is in your hands; protect it! It sinks with you! With you it will ascend.
#25
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#26
O who knows what slumbers in the background of the times?
#27
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
O the idea was childish, but divinely beautiful.
#28
Grosse Seelen dulden still.
#29
A moment lived in paradise Is not atoned for too dearly by death.
#30
I am called The richest monarch in the Christian world; The sun in my dominion never sets.
#31
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Love is only known by him who hopelessly persists in love.
#32
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#33
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Be embraced, ye millions! This kiss is for the whole world! Brothers, above the arch of stars A loving Father surely dwells.
#34
Welcome, all ye myriad creatures! Brethren, take the kiss of love!
#35
He, that noble prize possessing- He that boasts a friend that's true, He whom woman's love is blessing, Let him join the chorus too!
#36
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Bow before him, all creation! Mortals, own the God of love! Seek him high the stars above,- Yonder is his habitation!
#37
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
#38
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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!
#39
To the Gods we ne'er can render Praise for every good they grant; Let us, with devotion tender, Minister to grief and want. Quenched be hate and wrath forever, Pardoned be our mortal foe- May our tears upbraid him never, No repentance bring him low!
#40
Sense of wrongs forget to treasure- Brethren, live in perfect love! In the starry realms above, God will mete as we may measure.
#41
Courage, ne'er by sorrow broken! Aid where tears of virtue flow; Faith to keep each promise spoken! Truth alike to friend and foe!
#42
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Lo, the dead shall rise to heaven! Brethren hail the blest decree; Every sin shall be forgiven, Hell forever cease to be!
#43
We are citizens of an age, as well as of a State; and if it is held to be unseemly, or even inadmissable, for a man to cut himself off from the customs and manners of the circle in which he lives, why should it be less of a duty, in the choice of his activity, to submit his decision to the needs and the taste of his century?
#44
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.
#45
It is through beauty that we arrive at freedom.
#46
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
When man is raised from his slumber in the senses, he feels that he is a man, he surveys his surroundings, and finds that he is in a state. He was introduced into this state, by the power of circumstances, before he could freely select his own position. But as a moral being he cannot possibly rest satisfied with a political condition forced upon him by necessity, and only calculated for that condition; and it would be unfortunate if this did satisfy him. In many cases man shakes off this blind law of necessity, by his free spontaneous action, of which among many others we have an instance, in his ennobling by beauty and suppressing by moral influence the powerful impulse implanted in him by nature in the passion of love.
#47
Nothing, it is true, is more common than for both Science and Art to pay homage to the spirit of the age, and for creative taste to accept the law of critical taste.
#48
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error.
#49
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#50
As noble Art has survived noble nature, so too she marches ahead of it, fashioning and awakening by her inspiration. Before Truth sends her triumphant light into the depths of the heart, imagination catches its rays, and the peaks of humanity will be glowing when humid night still lingers in the valleys.
#51
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.
#52
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays.
#53
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
While the womanly god demands our veneration, the godlike woman kindles our love; but while we allow ourselves to melt in the celestial loveliness, the celestial self-sufficiency holds us back in awe.
#54
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.
#55
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.
#56
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.
#57
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Life is earnest, art is gay.
#58
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.
#59
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
What is the short meaning of the long speech?
#60
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Der Krieg ernahrt den Krieg.
#61
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.
#62
In thy breast are the stars of thy fate.
#63
You say it as you understand it.
#64
When the wine goes in, strange things come out.
#65
The dictates of the heart are the voice of fate.
#66
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The hat is the pride of man; for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man.
#67
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#68
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Man is made of ordinary things, and habit is his nurse.
#69
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
I have only an office here, and no opinion.
#70
Virtue has her heroes too As well as Fame and Fortune.
#71
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Many a crown shines spotless now That yet was deeply sullied in the winning.
#72
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
There's no such thing as chance; And what to us seems merest accident Springs from the deepest source of destiny.
#73
What is life without the radiance of love?
#74
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Time is man's angel.
#75
The strong man is strongest when alone.
#76
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it.
#77
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Who reflects too much will accomplish little.
#78
You saw his weakness, and he will never forgive you.
#79
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
This feat of Tell, the archer, will be told While yonder mountains stand upon their base. By heaven! The apple's cleft right through the core.
#80
No cause has he to say his doom is harsh, Who's made the master of his destiny.
#81
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
What's old collapses, times change, And new life blossoms in the ruins.
#82
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.
#83
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The most pious man can't stay in peace If it doesn't please his evil neighbor.
#84
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.
#85
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.
#86
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#87
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#88
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The universe is a thought of God. After this ideal thought-fabric passed out into reality, and the new-born world fulfilled the plan of its Creator-permit me to use this human simile-the first duty of all thinking beings has been to retrace the original design in this great reality; to find the principle in the mechanism, the unity in the compound, the law in the phenomenon, and to pass back from the structure to its primitive foundation. Accordingly to me there is only one appearance in nature-the thinking being. The great compound called the world is only remarkable to me because it is present to shadow forth symbolically the manifold expressions of that being. All in me and out of me is only the hieroglyph of a power which is like to me. The laws of nature are the cyphers which the thinking mind adds on to make itself understandable to intelligence-the alphabet by means of which all spirits communicate with the most perfect Spirit and with one another. Harmony, truth, order, beauty, excellence, give me joy, because they transport me into the active state of their author, of their possessor, because they betray the presence of a rational and feeling Being, and let me perceive my relationship with that Being.
#89
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.
#90
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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.
#91
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.
#92
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
A noble heart will always capitulate to reason.
#93
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual.
#94
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
All things must; man is the only creature that wills.
#95
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Appearance rules the world.
#96
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.
#97
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe.
#98
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor.
#99
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
#100
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air.
#101
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
#102
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Freedom can occur only through education.
#103
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.
#104
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Glory to Women! They weave and entwine heavenly roses into an earthly life.
#105
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.
#106
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.
#107
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
He who considers too much will perform little.
#108
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Honesty prospers in every condition of life.
#109
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
I see before me the father of my parents.
#110
In the society where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully.
#111
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.
#112
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.
#113
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
It is base to filch a purse, daring to embezzle a million, but it is great beyond measure to steal a crown. The sin lessens as the guilt increases.
#114
It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans.
#115
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
It is easy to give advice from a port of safety.
#116
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long.
#117
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.
#118
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.
#119
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Live with your century; but do not be its creature.
#120
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine.
#121
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Mankind is made great or little by its own will.
#122
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
#123
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Not without a shudder may the human hand reach into the mysterious urn of destiny.
#124
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Nothing leads to good that is not natural.
#125
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives.
#126
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him.
#127
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful.
#128
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.
#129
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.
#130
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
That which is so universal as death must be a benefit.
#131
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The key to education is the experience of beauty.
#132
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.
#133
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
#134
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The will of man is his happiness.
#135
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.
#136
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.
#137
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.
#138
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine.
#139
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart.
#140
Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.
#141
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Votes should be weighed not counted.
#142
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
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!
#143
Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.
#144
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor.
#145
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Youth covets; let not this covetousness seduce you.
#146
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

Friedrich von Schiller quotes