Friedrich Schiller Quotes

Leicht beieinander wohnen die Gedanken, doch hart im Raume stoßen sich die Sachen

If thou canst not give pleasure to all by thy deeds and thy knowledge Give it then, unto the few; many to please is but in vain.

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

What is not abandoned is never completely lost.

Bow before Him, all creation!
Mortals, own the God of love!
Seek Him high the stars above,—
Yonder is His habitation!

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.

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

Lebe mit deinem Jahrhundert, aber sei nicht sein Geschöpf; leiste deinen Zeitgenossen, aber was sie bedürfen, nicht was sie loben.

¡Quita! Abajo con este débil siglo de castrati que no sirve más que para rumiar las hazañas del pasado y para desollar a los héroes de la Antigüedad con ediciones comentadas y echarlos a perder con tragedias. La fuerza de su simiente se ha secado y ahora hay que ayudar a los hombres a multiplicarse con levadura de cerveza.

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

His Armies, weakened by defeat and defeat, dispirited by misfortune, had unlearned - under beaten generals - that warlike impetuosity which as it is the consequence, so it is the guarentee of success.

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

Atrévete a ser sabio. Es menester energía del ánimo para dominar los obstáculos que al saber oponen la indolencia de la naturaleza y la cobardía del corazón.

Man is not better treated by nature in his first start than her other works are; so long as he is unable to act for himself as an independent intelligence she acts for him. But the very fact that constitutes him a man is that he does not remain stationary, where nature has placed him, that he can pass with his reason, retracing the steps nature had made him anticipate, that he can convert the work of necessity into one of free solution, and elevate physical necessity into a moral law.

If desire seizes directly upon its object, contemplation removes its object to a distance, and makes it into a true and inalienable possession by putting it beyond the reach of passion.