Friedrich Schiller Quotes (111 quotes, page 2)

“Even the Strongest Minds Cannot, with impunity, defy the prejudices of the age.”

Friedrich Schiller

The Thirty Years War

Age

Friedrich Schiller Don Carlos

Act I, sc. iv ; as translated by R. D. Boylan and Joseph Mellish (1902)
Variant: ""Great spirits suffer patiently""; as translated by A. Leslie and Jeanne R. Willson (1983)
Don Carlos (1787)

Soul , Silence

“Who reflects too much will accomplish little.”

Friedrich Schiller William Tell

Act III, sc. i
Wilhelm Tell (1803)

“The hat is the pride of man; for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act IV, sc. v, Kellermeister (Master of the Cellar)
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)

“A moment lived in paradise
Is not atoned for too dearly by death.”

Friedrich Schiller Don Carlos

Act I, sc. v
Don Carlos (1787)

Death

“Joy, in Nature's wide dominion,
Mightiest cause of all is found;
And 'tis joy that moves the pinion,
When the wheel of time goes round”

Friedrich Schiller Ode to Joy

Stanza 4
An die Freude (Ode to Joy; or Hymn to Joy) (1785)

Nature , Time , Joy

“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.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act I, sc. i
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)

Secret , Imagination , Birth , Light

“Only through Beauty's morning gate, dost thou enter the land of Knowledge.”

Friedrich Schiller

Die Künstler (The Artists)

Beauty , Knowledge

“Pain is short, and joy is eternal.”

Friedrich Schiller The Maid of Orleans

The Maid of Orleans (1801), last line

Pain , Joy

“When man is raised from his slumber in the senses, he feels that he is a man, he surveys his surroundings, and finds that he is in a state. He was introduced into this state, by the power of circumstances, before he could freely select his own position. But as a moral being he cannot possibly rest satisfied with a political condition forced upon him by necessity, and only calculated for that condition; and it would be unfortunate if this did satisfy him. In many cases man shakes off this blind law of necessity, by his free spontaneous action, of which among many others we have an instance, in his ennobling by beauty and suppressing by moral influence the powerful impulse implanted in him by nature in the passion of love.”

Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Letter 3
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

Love , Law , Beauty , Feeling

“The strong man is strongest when alone.”

Friedrich Schiller William Tell

Tell, Act I, sc. iii, as translated by Sir Thomas Martin
Wilhelm Tell (1803)

Strong

“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?”

Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Letter 2
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

Age , Decision

“Joy from truth's own glass of fire
Sweetly on the searcher smiles;
Lest on virtue's steeps he tire,
Joy the tedious path beguiles.
High on faith's bright hill before us,
See her banner proudly wave!
Joy, too, swells the angels' chorus,—
Bursts the bondage of the grave!”

Friedrich Schiller Ode to Joy

Stanza 5
An die Freude (Ode to Joy; or Hymn to Joy) (1785)

Truth , Faith , Smile , Angels

“The present age has witnessed an extraordinary increase of a thinking public, by the facilities afforded to the diffusion of reading; the former happy resignation to ignorance begins to make way for a state of half-enlightenment, and few persons are willing to remain in the condition in which their birth has placed then.”

Friedrich Schiller

Prefatory Remarks
The Philosophical Letters

Age , Way , Birth , Thinking

“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.”

Friedrich Schiller

History of the Thirty Years War - Volume II
Attitude of the Imperial/League army after the protestant victory at Brietenfeld.
The Thirty Years War

Success

“The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.”

Friedrich Schiller

Die Verschwörung des Fiesco (The Conspiracy of Fiesco), Act I, sc. vii (1783)

“While the womanly god demands our veneration, the godlike woman kindles our love; but while we allow ourselves to melt in the celestial loveliness, the celestial self-sufficiency holds us back in awe.”

Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man

On the famous statue "Juno Ludovisi", Letter 15
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

Love , God

“You say it as you understand it.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act II, sc. vi
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)

Understanding

“The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.”

Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Letter 35
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

People , Youth , Age , Time

“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.”

Friedrich Schiller The Bride of Messina

Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina), Act IV, sc. iv (1803)

Life , Pain , Way , Learning

“I have only an office here, and no opinion.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act I, sc. v
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)

“In circumstances where the law of force prevails, where security depends on power alone, the weakest party is naturally the most busy to place itself in a posture of defense.”

Friedrich Schiller

History of the Thirty Years War - Volume II
The Thirty Years War

Law , Business , Nature , Dependency

“I am called
The richest monarch in the Christian world;
The sun in my dominion never sets.”

Friedrich Schiller Don Carlos

Act I, sc. vi
Don Carlos (1787)

World , Sun

“Life is earnest, art is gay.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Prologue
Wallenstein (1798), Prologue - Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp)

Life , Art

“Fortune, which had never forsaken him in his lifetime, favored the King of Sweden even in his death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fullness of his glory and an untarnished fame. By a timely death, his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable fate of man - that of forgetting moderation in the intoxication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power.”

Friedrich Schiller

History of the Thirty YEars War 178
The Thirty Years War

Death , Fate , Justice , Time

“One people will we be, — a band of brothers;
No danger, no distress shall sunder us.
We will be freemen as our fathers were,
And sooner welcome death than live as slaves.
We will rely on God's almighty arm,
And never quail before the power of man.”

Friedrich Schiller William Tell

Wir wollen sein ein einzig Volk von Brüdern,
in keiner Not uns trennen und Gefahr.
Wir wollen frei sein, wie die Väter waren,
eher den Tod, als in der Knechtschaft leben.
Wir wollen trauen auf den höchsten Gott
und uns nicht fürchten vor der Macht der Menschen.
Act II, Sc. 2, as translated by C. T. Brooke
Variant translation: We shall be a single People of brethren,
Never to part in danger nor distress.
We shall be free, just as our fathers were,
And rather die than live in slavery.
We shall trust in the one highest God
And never be afraid of human power.
Wilhelm Tell (1803)

Death , God , People

“What one refuses in a minute
No eternity will return.”

Friedrich Schiller

Resignation (1786)

“Be embraced, ye millions!
This kiss is for the whole world!
Brothers, above the arch of stars
A loving Father surely dwells.”

Friedrich Schiller Ode to Joy

Stanza 5
An die Freude (Ode to Joy; or Hymn to Joy) (1785)

Love , World , Star , Kiss

“The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty
That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain,
Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths, — all these have vanished;
They live no longer in the faith of reason.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act II, sc. iv
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)

Faith , Religion , Beauty , Mountain

“As noble Art has survived noble nature, so too she marches ahead of it, fashioning and awakening by her inspiration. Before Truth sends her triumphant light into the depths of the heart, imagination catches its rays, and the peaks of humanity will be glowing when humid night still lingers in the valleys.”

Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Letter 9
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

Truth , Art , Imagination , Fashion

“Law can only be applied to foreseeable cases.”

Friedrich Schiller

History of the Thirty Years War - Volume II
The Thirty Years War

Law

“Many a crown shines spotless now
That yet was deeply sullied in the winning.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act II, sc. ii
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)

“Courage, ne'er by sorrow broken!
Aid where tears of virtue flow;
Faith to keep each promise spoken!
Truth alike to friend and foe!”

Friedrich Schiller Ode to Joy

Stanza 8
An die Freude (Ode to Joy; or Hymn to Joy) (1785)

Truth , Faith , Courage , Tear

“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.”

Friedrich Schiller

Prefatory Remarks
The Philosophical Letters

Truth , Youth , Religion , Way

“He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Prologue
Wallenstein (1798), Prologue - Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp)

Time

“The most pious man can't stay in peace
If it doesn't please his evil neighbor.”

Friedrich Schiller William Tell

Act IV, sc. iii
Wilhelm Tell (1803)

Peace , Evil

“Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Prologue
Wallenstein (1798), Prologue - Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp)

“Virtue is no empty echo.”

Friedrich Schiller Die Worte des Glaubens

Die Worte des Glaubens (The Word of the Faithful), st. 3 (1797)

“It is an unfailing maxim, that if policy enjoins an act of violence, its execution must never be entrusted to the violent.”

Friedrich Schiller

The Thirty Years War

“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.”

Friedrich Schiller

Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk, // Mach es wenigen recht, vielen gefallen ist schlimm.
Tabulae Votivae (Votive Tablets) (1796), "Choice"; tr. Edgar Alfred Bowring, The Poems of Schiller, Complete (1851)

Knowledge , Pleasure