Friedrich Schiller Quotes

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

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 should be weighed, not counted.
Sooner or later, the state will be wrecked
In which majority rules, and ignorance decides.

When the Creator banished from his sight
Frail man to dark mortality's abode,
And granted him a late return to light,
Only by treading reason's arduous road, — When each immortal turned his face away,
She, the compassionate, alone
Took up her dwelling in that house of clay,
With the deserted, banished one.
With drooping wing she hovers here
Around her darling, near the senses' land,
And on his prison-walls so drear
Elysium paints with fond deceptive hand.

While soft humanity still lay at rest,
Within her tender arms extended,
No flame was stirred by bigots' murderous zest,
No guiltless blood on high ascended.
The heart that she in gentle fetters binds,
Views duty's slavish escort scornfully;
Her path of light, though fairer far it winds,
Sinks in the sun-track of morality.
Those who in her chaste service still remain,
No grovelling thought can tempt, no fate affright;
The spiritual life, so free from stain,
Freedom's sweet birthright, they receive again,
Under the mystic sway of holy might.

"Mazarin shed tears over this great loss, which Conde, who had no feeling for anything but glory, disregarded. "A single night in Paris," said he, "gives birth to more men than this action has destroyed.

Wer tränen ernten will, muss Liebe säen.

Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.

He who considers too much will perform little.

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?

lern' erst die Tiefe des Abgrunds kennen, eh du hineinspringst!

Who reflects too much will accomplish little.

My son, there's nothing insignificant,
Nothing! But yet in every earthly thing
First and most principal is place and time.

"Erhob sich nicht in meinem Parlamente
Die reine Stimme der Gerechtigkeit?"
"Sie ist verstummt vor der Parteien Wut."

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

Translation: War nourishes war.