Friedrich schiller quotes

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.

Virtue is no empty echo.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

It may here be justly said, that genuine morality is preserved only in the school of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.

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

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

What is life without the radiance of love?

He that is overcautious will accomplish little.

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

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

Nothing leads to good that is not natural.

Weep, for the light is dead.

Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.

Great souls endure in silence.

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.

Freedom exists only with power.

Truth lives on in the midst of deception.

Where there is much freedom there is much error.

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

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

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

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

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.

The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it.

When the wine goes in, strange things come out.

Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.

I am my own heaven and hell!

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

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

Fear of death is worse than dying.

There is no solitude in nature.

Illusion is brief, but repentance is long.

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.

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.

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

He who considers too much will perform little.

The universe is a thought of God.

Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.

Great souls suffer in silence.

Fate hath no voice but the heart's impulse.

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

Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.

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

Art is the daughter of freedom.

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.

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.

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

Every true genius is bound to be naive.

Votes should be weighed not counted.

The mind is the eyesight of the soul.

The key to education is the experience of beauty.

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

It is play and only play that makes man complete.

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

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

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

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

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

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

Forgiveness is the divinest of victories.

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.

Man is an imitative creature.

To save all we must risk all.

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

Dare to be wrong and to dream.

There is a nobility in the world of manners.

Appearance rules the world.

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

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

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

The strong man is strongest when alone.

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.

Modest humility is beauty's crown.

Freedom can occur only through education.

Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.

I follow my heart, for I can trust it.

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

What is the short meaning of the long speech?

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

Art is the right hand of Nature.

Honesty prospers in every condition of life.

No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.

Man is never so authentically himself as when at play.

Speech is always bolder than action.

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 heavens journey still, and adjourn not.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart.

Will it, and set to work briskly.

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.

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

Love can sun the realms of night.

Innocence has a friend in heaven.

Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

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

Stubbornness is not firmness.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Keep true to the dreams of your youth.

Love is the reward of love.

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

Even the weak become strong when they are united.

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

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