Friedrich Schiller Quotations

Keep true to the dreams of your youth.

It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.

There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.

Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.

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.

Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.

Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.

Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.

If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Nothing leads to good that is not natural.

There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.

In the society, where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully.

No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.

Every true genius is bound to be naive.

It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.

A noble heart will always capitulate to reason.

A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.

The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.

No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.

Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives.

Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him.

The history of the world is the world's court of justice.

Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine.

Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual.

Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.

Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

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.

Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.

Live with your century; but do not be its creature.

To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine.

A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.

With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

The key to education is the experience of beauty.

The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh.

Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance. 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.

It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.

It is easy to give advice from a port of safety.

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.

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.

He who considers too much will perform little.

It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long.

All things must; man is the only creature that wills.

That which is so universal as death must be a benefit.

They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.

Not without a shudder may the human hand reach into the mysterious urn of destiny.

Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air.

Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor.

As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe.

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans.

Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor.

Philosophers ruin language, poets ruin logic, but with human reasoning alone man will never make it through life.

Only those who have to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily

Have hope. Though clouds environs now,And gladness hides her face in scorn,Put thou the shadow from my brow --No night but hath its morn.

Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.

Keep true to the dream of thy youth.

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.

If you want to know yourself, Just look how others do it; If you want to understand others, Look into your own heart. What is life without the radiance of love?

Man ever talks, and Man ever dreams Of better days that are yet to be, After glittering goal, that distant gleams, Running and racing untiringly. The worldly may grow old and young as it will, But the Hope of man is Improvement still. Hope bears him into life in her arms, She flutters around the boy's young bloom, The soul of youth with her magic warms, Nor rests with age in the silent tomb; For ends man his weary course at the grave, There plants he Hope o'er his ashes to wave.

Disappointments are to the soul what the thunder-storm is to the air

The brave person thinks of themselves last of all.

A beautiful soul has no other merit, but it's existence

The zeal of friends it is that knocks me down, and not the hate of enemies

Against stupidity the very Gods themselves toil in vain

He that is over -- cautious will accomplish little.

Have Love. Not love alone for one, but man as man they brother call; and scatter like the circling sun thy charities on all.

Sorrow is brief but joy is endless

Why should I deem myself to be a chisel, when I could be the artist?

The painter is, as to the execution of his work, a mechanic; but as to his conception and spirit and design he is hardly below even the poet.

A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience.

What's old collapses, times change, and new life blossoms in the ruins.

He who neglects the present moment throws away all he has.

Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.

Toil of science swells the wealth of art.

I have enjoyed the happiness of the world; I have loved.

To live is to dream, and to dream pleasantly is to be wise.

We are citizens of an age, as well as of a State; and if it is held to be unseemly, or even inadmissible, 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?

This is the curse of an evil deed, that it incites and must bring forth more evil.

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.

What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul.

Man is an imitative creature.

Even now, nature is the only flame, on which the poetic spirit feeds; from it alone it draws all its power, to it alone it speaks even in the artificial, in the man engaged in culture.

No cause has he to say his doom is harsh, who's made the master of his destiny.

You worthy critics, or whatever you may call yourselves, are ashamed or afraid of the momentary and passing madness which is found in all real creators, the longer or shorter duration of which distinguishes the thinking artist from the dreamer. Hence your complaints of unfruitfulness, for you reject too soon and discriminate too severely.

What shall he fear that does not fear death.

What reason, like the careful ant, draws laboriously together, the wind of accident sometimes collects in a moment.

No greater grief than to remember days of gladness when sorrow is at hand.

The lamp of genius burns quicker than the lamp of life.

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.

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality.

Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits.

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.

Will it, and set to work briskly.

Man is never so authentically himself as when at play.

Glory to Women! They weave and entwine heavenly roses into an earthly life.

Alas! When duty grows thy law, enjoyment fades away.

Even in a righteous cause force is a fearful thing.

Forgiveness is the divinest of victories.