Friedrich Schiller Quotes

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

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

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

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

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.

Appearance rules the world.

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

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.

He who considers too much will perform little.

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

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.

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

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

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

The history of the world is the world's court of justice.

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

The first great law is to obey.

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.

Obedience decks the Christian most.

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.

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

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

Honesty prospers in every condition of life.

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

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

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

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality.

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

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

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

Never the grave gives back what it has won!

On dreary night let lusty sunshine fall.

I feel that I am a man of destiny.

Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

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.

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.

The dream is short, repentance long.

I am better than my reputation

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

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

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.

Art is difficult, transient is her reward.

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

It is through beauty that we arrive at freedom.

Deaf rage that hears no leader.

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

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

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

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.

On the mountains there is freedom! The world is perfect everywhere, Save where man comes with his torment.