Top quotes by Friedrich Schiller

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. Votes: 7

Mankind is made great or little by its own will. Votes: 7

Appearance rules the world. Votes: 7

Not without a shudder may the human hand reach into the mysterious urn of destiny. Votes: 6

The history of the world is the world's court of justice. Votes: 6

Freedom can occur only through education. Votes: 5

The universe is one of God's thoughts. Votes: 5

Votes should be weighed not counted. Votes: 5

Der Ring macht Ehen,und Ringe sind's, die eine Kette machen.II, 2. (Elisabeth) Votes: 5

The key to education is the experience of beauty. Votes: 4

Art is the daughter of freedom. Votes: 4

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice. Votes: 4

There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny. Votes: 2

In the society, where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully. Votes: 2

Nothing leads to good that is not natural. Votes: 2

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. Votes: 2

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages. Votes: 2

That which is so universal as death must be a benefit. Votes: 1

Let not thy heart cling to the things which for so short a time deck out thy life. Let him who has, learn to lose, and him who is happy, familiarise himself with what may give pain. Votes: 1

The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are. Votes: 0

Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance. Votes: 0

Let him that sows the serpent's teeth not hope to reap a joyous harvest. Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, its own avenging angel,--dark misgivings at the inmost heart. Votes: 0

Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair. Votes: 0

As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe. Votes: 0

If you have never seen beauty in a moment of suffering, you have never seen beauty at all. If you have never seen joy in a beautiful face, you have never seen joy at all. Votes: 0

A beautiful soul has no other merit than its own existence. Votes: 0

It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans. Votes: 0

A sublime soul can rise to all kinds of greatness, but by an effort; it can tear itself from all bondage, to all that limits and constrains it, but only by strength of will. Consequently the sublime soul is only free by broken efforts. Votes: 0

There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair. Votes: 0

Deep meaning lies often in childish play. Votes: 0

A deep meaning often lies in old customs. Votes: 0

Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught by life. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

One drop of hatred left in the cup of joy turns the most blissful draught into poison. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart. Votes: 0

Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change. Votes: 0

There are evil spirits who suddenly fix their abode in man's unguarded breast, causing us to commit devilish deeds, and then, hurrying back to their native hell, leave behind the stings of remorse in the poisoned bosom. Votes: 0

A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. Votes: 0

It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons. Votes: 0

What shall he fear that does not fear death. Votes: 0

To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine. Votes: 0

Whoever fails to turn aside the ills of life by prudent forethought, must submit to fulfill the course of destiny. Votes: 0

Friends show me what I can do, foes teach me what I should do. Votes: 0

Dear is my friend--yet from my foe, as from my friend, comes good: My friend shows what I can do, and my foe what I should. Votes: 0

Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators. Votes: 0

If yon wish to be like the gods on earth, to be free in the realms of the dead, pluck not the fruit from the garden! In appearance it may glisten to the eye; but the perishable pleasure of possession quickly avenges the curse of curiosity. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Satisfied if they themselves can escape from the hard labour of thought, they willingly abandon to others the guardianship of their thoughts. Votes: 0

When the measured dance of the hours brings back the happy smile of spring, the buried dead is born again in the life-glance of the sun. The germs which perished to the eye within the cold breast of the earth spring up with joy in the bright realm of day. Votes: 0

Have hope. Though clouds environs now, And gladness hides her face in scorn, Put thou the shadow from thy brow - No night but hath its morn. Votes: 0

An axe at home saves hiring a carpenter. Votes: 0

Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor. Votes: 0

To rankling poison hast thou turned in me the milk of human kindness. Votes: 0

If thou art something bring thy soul and interchange with mine. - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Votes: 0

O jealousy! thou magnifier of trifles. Votes: 0

The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh. Votes: 0

His saying was: live and let live. Votes: 0

In love, Jealousy is the great exaggerator. Votes: 0

The Moor has done his work, the Moor may go. Votes: 0

If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new. Votes: 0

Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful. Votes: 0

Obedience decks the Christian most. Votes: 0

The first great law is to obey. Votes: 0

History, insofar as it accustoms human beings to comprehend the whole of the past and to hasten forward with its conclusions into the far future, conceals the boundaries of birth and death, which enclose the life of the human being so narrowly and oppressively, and with a kind of optical illusion, expands his short existence into endless space, leading the individual imperceptibly over into humanity. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits. Votes: 0

Power is the most persuasive rhetoric. Votes: 0

It is at the approach of extreme danger when a hollow puppet can accomplish nothing, that power falls into the mighty hands of nature, of the spirit giant-born, who listens only to himself, and knows nothing of compacts. Votes: 0

We can never replace a friend. When a man is fortunate enough to have several, he finds they are all different. No one has a double in friendship. Votes: 0

Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge. Votes: 0

The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself. Votes: 0

The man of courage thinks not of himself. Help the oppressed and put thy trust in God. Votes: 0

Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air. Votes: 0

Every true genius is bound to be naive. Votes: 0

Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives. Votes: 0

So it has reached this pass? Obedience and fear take flight together? Votes: 0

When the mechanic has to mend a watch he lets the wheels run out; but the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act, and a wheel has to be exchanged for another during its revolutions. Votes: 0

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily. Votes: 0

Many a smiling face hides a mourning heart; but grief alone teaches us what we are. Votes: 0

The strong man is strongest when alone. Votes: 0

Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain. Votes: 0

A pity about the people! they are brave enough comrades, but they have heads like a soapboiler's. Votes: 0

Honesty prospers in every condition of life. Votes: 0

Time flies on restless pinions - constant never. Votes: 0

On the mountains there is freedom! The world is perfect everywhere, save where man comes with his torment. Votes: 0

Even the weak become strong when they are united. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

What is life without the radiance of love? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

All things must; man is the only creature that wills. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Keep true to the dreams of your youth. Votes: 0

A noble heart will always capitulate to reason. Votes: 0

The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world. Votes: 0

It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so. Votes: 0

Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate. Votes: 0

Did you think the lion was sleeping because he didn't roar? Votes: 0

Love is only known by him who hopelessly persists in love. Votes: 0

Love guides the stars towards each other, the world plan endures only through love. Votes: 0

If you wish to know yourself observe how others act. If you wish to understand others look into your own heart. Votes: 0

Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom. Votes: 0

Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present. Votes: 0

When you are not happy with your life, always think that someone is happy simply because you exist Votes: 0

No, no! I do nature injustice. She gave us inventive faculty, and set us naked, and helpless on the shore of this great ocean,--the world; swim those who can, the heavy may go to the bottom. Votes: 0

Let no one despair, even though in the darkest night the last star of hope may disappear. Votes: 0

Modest humility is beauty's crown. Votes: 0

Wouldst thou know thyself, observe the actions of others. Wouldst thou other men know, look thou within thine own heart. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The universe is a thought of God. Votes: 0

If you want to study yourself, look into the hearts of other people. If you want to study other people, look into your own heart. Votes: 0

Where there is much freedom there is much error. Votes: 0

It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long. Votes: 0

The dignity of man into your hands is given; Oh, keep it well, with you it sinks or lifts itself to heaven. Votes: 0

Dare to be wrong and to dream. Votes: 0

When the wine goes in, strange things come out. Votes: 0

Great souls endure in silence. Votes: 0

Think with awe on the slow and quiet power of time. Votes: 0

He who considers too much will perform little. Votes: 0

The future comes slowly, the present flies and the past stands still forever. Votes: 0

A healthy nature needs no God or immortality Votes: 0

Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor. Votes: 0

The gentlest man cannot live in peace if it does not please his wicked neighbor. Votes: 0

Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable - as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead. Votes: 0

If the art of gardening is at last to turn back from her extravagances and rest with her other sisters, it is, above everything, necessary to have clearly before you what you require . . . It is certainly tasteless and inconsistent to desire to encompass the world with a garden-wall, but very practicable and reasonable to make a garden . . . into a characteristic whole to the eye, heart, and nderstanding alike. Votes: 0

From the moment fear begins I have ceased to fear. Votes: 0

To save all we must risk all. Votes: 0

Everlastingly chained to a single little fragment of the Whole, man himself develops into nothing but a fragment; everlastingly in his ear the monotonous sound of the wheel that he turns, he never develops the harmony of his being, and instead of putting the stamp of humanity upon his own nature, he becomes nothing more than the imprint of his occupation or of his specialized knowledge. Votes: 0

Genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity; a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quick sand to virtue Votes: 0

As soon as I have begun to fear I have ceased to fear. Votes: 0

False fancy brings real misery. Votes: 0

Foster the beautiful, and every hour thou tallest new flowers to birth. Votes: 0

Weep, for the light is dead. Votes: 0

Culture, far from giving us freedom, only develops, as it advances, new necessities; the fetters of the physical close more tightly around us, so that the fear of loss quenches even the ardent impulse toward improvement, and the maxims of passive obedience are held to be the highest wisdom of life. Votes: 0

We are too prone to find fault; let us look for some of the perfections. Votes: 0

Heaven and earth fight in vain against a dunce! Votes: 0

The brave person thinks of himself last of all. Votes: 0

Wise to resolve, patient to perform. Votes: 0

The reason for you complaint lies, it seems to me, in the constraint which your intellect imposes upon your imagination. Here I will make an observation, and illustrate it by an allegory. Apparently, it is not good-and indeed it hinders the creative work of the mind-if the if the intellect examines too closely the ideas pouring in, as it were, at the gates. Votes: 0

In the case of a creative mind, it seems to me, the intellect has withdrawn its watchers from the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell and only then does it review and inspect the multitudes. Votes: 0

Stubbornness is not firmness. Votes: 0

There is more to life than just existing and having a pleasant time. Votes: 0

Day's lustrous eyes grow heavy in sweet death. Votes: 0

Eternity gives nothing back of what one leaves out of the minutes. Votes: 0

What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul. Votes: 0

Accursed be he who plays with the devil. Votes: 0

Alas! When duty grows thy law, enjoyment fades away. Votes: 0

We must bear what Heaven sends. Votes: 0

Virtue, though clothed in a beggar's garb, commands respect. Votes: 0

Soon is the struggle past, and to the earth, To the eternal sun, I render back These atoms, joined in me for pain and pleasure. Votes: 0

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 are thou then, if thou, Bound to the tail of folly's uncurb'd steed, Must, vainly shrieking, with the drunken crowd, Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss. Votes: 0

I feel that I am a man of destiny. Votes: 0

He that is over-cautious will accomplish but very little. Votes: 0

Art is difficult, transient is her reward. Votes: 0

One can give advice comfortably from a safe port. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

To live is to dream, and to dream pleasantly is to be wise. Votes: 0

In a narrow circle the mind contracts. Man grows with his expanded needs. Votes: 0

The world's history is constant, like the laws of nature, and simple, like the souls of men. The same conditions continually produce the same results. Votes: 0

Man is never so authentically himself as when at play. Votes: 0

Glory to Women! They weave and entwine heavenly roses into an earthly life. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Man is an imitative creature. Votes: 0

Sorrow is brief but joy is endless Votes: 0

Why should I deem myself to be a chisel, when I could be the artist? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience. Votes: 0

He who neglects the present moment throws away all he has. Votes: 0

Whatever is not forbidden is permitted. Votes: 0

I have enjoyed the happiness of the world; I have loved. Votes: 0

Deaf rage that hears no leader. Votes: 0

Most gladly would I give the blood-stained laurel for the first violet which March brings us, the fragrant pledge of the new-fledged year. Votes: 0

Love can sun the realms of night. Votes: 0

Rigor pushed too far is sure to miss its aim, however good, as the bow snaps that is bent too stiffly. Votes: 0

Individual character is in the right that is in strict consistence with itself. Self-contradiction is the only wrong. Votes: 0

Vast, colossal destiny, which raises man to fame, though it may also grind him to powder! Votes: 0

Death is a mighty mediator. There all the flames of rage are extinguished, hatred is appeased, and angelic pity, like a weeping sister, bends with gentle and close embrace over the funeral urn. Votes: 0

Fate hath no voice but the heart's impulse. Votes: 0

To the fool-king belongs the world. Votes: 0

Be true, and thou shalt fetter time with everlasting chain. Votes: 0

There is a nobility in the world of manners. Votes: 0

As freely as the firmament embraces the world, so mercy must encircle friend and foe. The sun poursforth impartially his beams through all the regions of infinity; heaven bestows the dew equally on every thirsty plant. Whatever is good and comes from on high is universal and without reserve: but in the heart's recesses darkness dwells. Votes: 0

Every great mind seeks to labor for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good. Votes: 0

He that is overcautious will accomplish little. Votes: 0

A virtuous name is the precious only good, for which queens and peasants' wives must contest together. Votes: 0

Cling to thy native land, for it is the land of thy fathers? Votes: 0

Cowards have done good and kind actions, but a coward never pardoned. Votes: 0

O God, how lovely still is life! Votes: 0

As inclination changes, thus ebbs and flows the unstable tide of public judgment. Votes: 0

He who never ventures beyond actuality will never win the prize of truth. Votes: 0

It is play and only play that makes man complete. Votes: 0

The happy man does not notice the flight of time. Votes: 0

Uncommon men require no common trust; give him but scope and he will set the bounds. Votes: 0

The world's history is the world's judgment. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Forgiveness is the finding again of a lost possession. Votes: 0

When the gods were more manlike, Men were more godlike. Votes: 0

Men show no mercy and expect no mercy, when honor calls, or when they fight for their idols or their gods. Votes: 0

Only the soldier is a free man, because he can look death in the face. Votes: 0

I follow my heart, for I can trust it. Votes: 0

It is well for a man when he has learned to endure what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity what he cannot retain. Votes: 0

Chains of iron or of silk-both are chains. Votes: 0

Joy all creatures drink At nature's bosoms... Votes: 0

O who knows what slumbers in the background of the times? Votes: 0

The victor is often vanquished by his own success. Votes: 0

The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it. Votes: 0

The hat is the pride of man; for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man. Votes: 0

Have faith! where'er thy bark is driven, 'The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth, Know this! God rules the host of heaven, The inhabitants of earth. Votes: 0

Art is the right hand of Nature. Votes: 0

On dreary night let lusty sunshine fall. Votes: 0

O the eye's light is a noble gift of Heaven! All beings live from light, each fair created thing; the very plants turn with a joyful transport to the light. Votes: 0

Sentimental poetry differs from naive poetry in that it relates the real state at which the latter stops to ideas and applies ideas to that reality. Votes: 0

Seraphs share with thee Knowledge; but Art, O Man, is thine alone! Votes: 0

Pain is short, and joy is eternal. Votes: 0

Around, around, Companions all, take your ground, And name the bell with joy profound! CONCORDIA is the word we've found Most meet to express the harmonious sound, That calls to those in friendship bound. Votes: 0

Never the grave gives back what it has won! Votes: 0

I feel an army in my fist. Votes: 0

Virtue is no empty echo. Votes: 0

Appearance should never attain reality, And if nature conquers, then must art retire. Votes: 0

Life is earnest, art is gay. Votes: 0

Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Courage, ne'er by sorrow broken! Aid where tears of virtue flow; Faith to keep each promise spoken! Truth alike to friend and foe! Votes: 0

I am called The richest monarch in the Christian world; The sun in my dominion never sets. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Strange customs do not thrive in foreign soil. Votes: 0

Fate always wins, for our own heart within us Imperiously furthers its designs. Votes: 0

Spring flies, and with it all the train it leads; and flowers, in fading, leave us but their seeds. Votes: 0

In the ardor of pursuit men soon forget the goal from which they start. Votes: 0

Futurity is impregnable to mortal ken: no prayer pierces through heaven's adamantine walls. Whether the birds fly right or left, whatever be the aspect of the stars, the book of nature is a maze, dreams are a lie, and every sign a falsehood. Votes: 0

It is easy to give advice from a port of safety. Votes: 0

Emulation is a noble and just passion, full of appreciation. Votes: 0

The man who fears nothing is as powerful as he who is feared by everybody. Votes: 0

There is no solitude in nature. Votes: 0

There are occasions when the general belief of the people, even though it be groundless, works its effect as sure as truth itself. Votes: 0

Illusion is brief, but repentance is long. Votes: 0

For the world is only governed by self-interest. Votes: 0

To know thyself--in others self-concern; Would'st thou know others? read thyself--and learn! Votes: 0

Joy is the mainspring in the whole Of endless Nature's calm rotation. Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll In the great Time-piece of Creation. Votes: 0

Gray hairs are death's blossoms. Votes: 0

Intellect--brain force. Votes: 0

The very plants turn with a joyful transport to the light. Votes: 0

Arrow-swift the present sweepeth, and motionless forever stands the past. Votes: 0

Time consecrates; and what is gray with age becomes religion. Votes: 0

An honest man you may form of windle-straws, but to make a rogue you must have grist. Votes: 0

I know that we often tremble at an empty terror; yet the false fancy brings a real misery. Votes: 0

It is only through the morning gate of the beautiful that you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge. That which we feel here as beauty we shall one day know as truth. Votes: 0

A childlike mind in its simplicity practises that science of good to which the wise may be blind. Votes: 0

Without a home must the soldier go, a changeful wanderer, and can warm himself at no home-lit hearth. Votes: 0

Truth is more than a dream and a song. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Man is made of ordinary things, and habit is his nurse. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Wine invents nothing; it only tattles. Votes: 0

What is the short meaning of the long speech? Votes: 0

It is through beauty that we arrive at freedom. Votes: 0

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! Votes: 0

The lemonade is weak, like your soul. Votes: 0

Time is a blooming field: nature is ever teeming with life: and all is seed, and all is fruit. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Sorrows must die with the joys they outnumber. Votes: 0

Whatever lives, lives to die in sorrow. We engage our hearts, and grasp after the things of this world, only to undergo the pang of losing them. Votes: 0

Fear of death is worse than dying. Votes: 0

It is not the mere station of life that stamps the value on us, but the manner in which we act our part. Votes: 0

Virtue has her heroes too As well as Fame and Fortune. Votes: 0

Yet have I ever heard it said that spies and tale-bearers have done more mischief in this world than poisoned bowl or the assassin's dagger. Votes: 0

Like a dart the present glances, Silent stands the past sublime. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Thus Arm in Arm with thee I dare defy my century into the lists. Votes: 0

The dictates of the heart are the voice of fate. Votes: 0

The game of life looks cheerful when one carries a treasure safe in his heart. Votes: 0

O'er Ocean, with a thousand masts, sails forth the stripling bold- One boat, hard rescued from the deep, draws into port the old! Votes: 0

The May of life blooms once and never again. Votes: 0

Wouldst thou wisely, and with pleasure, Pass the days of life's short measure, From the slow one counsel take, But a tool of him ne'er make; Ne'er as friend the swift one know, Nor the constant one as foe. Votes: 0

Life did not present its sunny side to thee. Votes: 0

We, we live! ours are the hours, and the living have their claims. Votes: 0

Far must thy researches go Wouldst thou learn the world to know; Thou must tempt the dark abyss Wouldst thou prove what Being is; Naught but firmness gains the prize, Naught but fullness makes us wise, Buried deep truth e'er lies. Votes: 0

The great happiness of life, I find, after all, to consist in the regular discharge of some mechanical duty. Votes: 0

Man is created free, and is free, even though born in chains. Votes: 0

Ah, to that far distant strand Bridge there was not to convey, Not a bark was near at hand, Yet true love soon found the way. Votes: 0

O that it might remain eternally green, The beautiful time of youthful love. Votes: 0

If you would attain to your highest, go look upon a flower;what the flower does willessly, that do willingly. Votes: 0

Every man stamps his value on himself... man is made great or small by his own will. Votes: 0

Love is the reward of love.... Votes: 0

Freedom exists only with power. Votes: 0

I am my own heaven and hell! Votes: 0

In a narrow circle the mind grows narrow. The more one expands, the larger their aims. Votes: 0

Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart. Votes: 0

I have enjoyed earthly happiness, I have lived and loved. Votes: 0

Youth covets; let not this covetousness seduce you. Votes: 0

Doch zittre vor der langsamen, Der stillen Macht der Zeit. Yet tremble at the slow, silent power of time. Votes: 0

Live with your century; but do not be its creature. Votes: 0

The iron chain and the silken cord are both equally bonds. Votes: 0

If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To please many is bad. Votes: 0

Man, one may say, was never in such a completely animal condition; but he has, on the other hand, never escaped from it. Votes: 0

But how is the artist to protect himself against the corruption of the age which besets him on all sides? Votes: 0

Man is made of the wholly common, and custom is his nurse; woe then to them who lay irreverent hands on his old house-furniture, the dear inheritance from his forefathers: For time consecrates, and what is gray with age becomes religion. Votes: 0

Song forbids victorious deeds to die. Votes: 0

Secrecy is for the happy,--misery, hopeless misery, needs no veil; under a thousand suns it dares act openly. Votes: 0

Satisfy a few to please many is bad. Votes: 0

The dream is short, repentance long. Votes: 0

Obedience is the Christian's crown. Votes: 0

Stern is the visage of necessity. Votes: 0

Misery travels free through the whole world! Votes: 0

Even weak men when united are powerful. Votes: 0

Our safety is not in blindness, but in facing our dangers. Votes: 0

The mind is the eyesight of the soul. Votes: 0

Egotism erects its center in itself; love places it out of itself in the axis of the universal whole. Love aims at unity, egotism at solitude. Love is the citizen ruler of a flourishing republic, egotism is a despot in a devastated creation. Egotism sows for gratitude, love for the ungrateful. Love gives, egotism lends; and love does this before the throne of judicial truth, indifferent if for the enjoyment of the following moment, or with the view to a martyr's crown--indifferent whether the reward is in this life or in the next. Votes: 0

Physical beauty is the sign of an interior beauty, a spiritual and moral beauty which is the basis, the principle, and the unity of the beautiful. Votes: 0

What else is chance but the rude stone which receives its life from the sculptor's hand? Providence gives us chance, and man must mould it to his own designs. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The zeal of friends it is that razes me, And not the hate of enemies. Votes: 0

Honor women! they entwine and weave heavenly roses in our earthly life. Votes: 0

The storm is master. Man, as a ball, is tossed twixt winds and billows. Votes: 0

The worst of me is known, and I can say that I am better than the reputation I bear. Votes: 0

To be man's tender mate was woman born, and in obeying nature she best serves the purposes of heaven. Votes: 0

Not he who scorns the Saviour's yoke Should wear his cross upon the heart. Votes: 0

A noble soul spreads even over a face in which the architectonic beauty is wanting an irresistible grace, and a often even triumphs over the natural disfavor. Votes: 0

Innocence has a friend in heaven. Votes: 0

You have to go the rounds from individual to individual in order to gather the totality of the race. Votes: 0

Many a crown shines spotless now that yet was deeply sullied in the winning. Votes: 0

No greater grief than to remember days of gladness when sorrow is at hand. Votes: 0

What reason, like the careful ant, draws laboriously together, the wind of accident sometimes collects in a moment. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times. Votes: 0

No cause has he to say his doom is harsh, who's made the master of his destiny. Votes: 0

Have Love. Not love alone for one, but man as man they brother call; and scatter like the circling sun thy charities on all. Votes: 0

Historians are prophets with their face turned backward. Votes: 0

To one, science is an exalted goddess; to another it is a cow which provides him with butter. Votes: 0

He cannot complain of a hard sentence, who is made master of his own fate. Votes: 0

Ever building, building to the clouds, still building higher, and never reflecting that the poor narrow basis cannot sustain the giddy tottering column. Votes: 0

Speech is always bolder than action. Votes: 0

The lamp of genius burns quicker than the lamp of life. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

You saw his weakness, and he will never forgive you. Votes: 0

Forgiveness is the divinest of victories. Votes: 0

Even in a righteous cause force is a fearful thing. Votes: 0

This is the curse of an evil deed, that it incites and must bring forth more evil. Votes: 0

Toil of science swells the wealth of art. Votes: 0

What's old collapses, times change, and new life blossoms in the ruins. Votes: 0

Truth lives on in the midst of deception.... Votes: 0

I am better than my reputation Votes: 0

Regarded in isolation, an idea may be quite insignificant, and venturesome in the extreme, but it may acquire importance from an idea which follows it; perhaps, in a certain collocation with other ideas, which may seem equally absurd, it may be capable of furnishing a very serviceable link. Votes: 0

Will it, and set to work briskly. Votes: 0

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality. Votes: 0

Top quotes by Friedrich Schiller

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