Friedrich Schiller

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.

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

Así, pues, la ilustración del entendimiento no merece respeto, si no en cuanto que se refleja en el carácter. Pero esto no basta; en cierto modo, la ilustración ha de proceder también del carácter, porque el camino que conduce al intelecto ha de abrirlo el corazón. Educar la facultad sensible es, por tanto, la más urgente necesidad de nuestro tiempo, no sólo porque es un medio de hacer eficaces en la vida los progresos del saber, sino porque contribuye a la mejora del conocimiento mismo.

Dem Mimen flicht die Nachwelt keine Kränze.

The lemonade is weak, like your soul.

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

A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.

Das Leben ist Nur ein Moment, der Tod ist auch nur einer!

razón, es cierto, exige unidad; pero la Naturaleza quiere multiplicidad, y ambas legislaciones gravitan sobre el hombre.

Glaube mir, man kann das für Stärke des Geistes halten, was doch am Ende Verzweiflung ist [...].

The dictates of the heart are the voice of fate.

There are three lessons I would write-
Three words, as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light,
Upon the heart of men.

Have hope! though clouds environ round,
And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow,
No night but hath its morn.

Have love! not love alone for one,
But man as man thy brother call,
And scatter like the circling sun,
Thy charities on all.

When the wine goes in, strange things come out.

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.

Liebe ist nur dem bekannt, der hoffnungslos in der Liebe beharrt