Frédéric Schlegel citations

Frédéric Schlegel, en allemand Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel est un philosophe, critique et écrivain allemand.

Issu d'une famille protestante, Friedrich Schlegel va s'entourer au fil des années d'un cercle d'amis parmi lesquels Novalis, Ludwig Tieck ou encore Friedrich Schleiermacher avec lequel il fondera un groupe appelé « Cercle d'Iéna », fondement de la théorie romantique en Allemagne.

Après des études de commerce qui ne l'intéressent pas, Schlegel se lance dans des études de droit mais il passe le plus clair de son temps à étudier les textes d'auteurs tels que Platon, Shakespeare ou Dante. Peu à peu mûrit en lui un véritable goût pour la littérature. Il forge sa théorie de la poésie romantique qui va révolutionner les idées de son temps. Le Cercle d'Iéna, qui existera peu de temps, va marquer l'histoire littéraire.

Après la fin du mouvement, Schlegel entreprend une série de voyages en France et en Allemagne puis se fixe à Vienne où il entre au service du chancelier Metternich.

Pendant sa période viennoise, Schlegel développe ses théories politiques, philosophiques et religieuses. Il participe à la vie politique allemande et donne des cours qui lui assurent un certain succès.

Les dernières années de sa vie sont marquées par un mysticisme religieux prononcé qui ternit son image auprès de ses amis et auprès de son frère Auguste avec qui il rompt tout contact. Toutefois, sa disparition en 1829 à l'âge de cinquante-sept ans est regrettée par un grand nombre de personnes. Après sa mort et pendant une longue période, l'œuvre de Schlegel sera dénigrée avant d'être réhabilitée par des chercheurs tels que Josef Körner. Wikipedia  

✵ 10. mars 1772 – 12. janvier 1829   •   Autres noms Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel
Frédéric Schlegel photo
Frédéric Schlegel: 67   citations 0   J'aime

Frédéric Schlegel: Citations en anglais

“Whoever does not philosophize for the sake of philosophy, but rather uses philosophy as a means, is a sophist.”

“Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #96
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“Whatever can be done while poetry and philosophy are separated has been done and accomplished. So the time has come to unite the two.”

Was sich thun lässt, so lange Philosophie und Poesie getrennt sind, ist gethan und vollendet. Also ist die Zeit nun da, beyde zu vereinigen.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 108

“Think of something finite molded into the infinite, and you think of man.”

Denke dir ein Endliches ins Unendliche gebildet, so denkst du einen Menschen.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (1968) #98

“There is no self-knowledge except historical self-knowledge. No one knows what he is if he doesn’t know what his contemporaries are.”

Es giebt keine Selbstkenntniss als die historische. Niemand weiss was er ist, wer nicht weiss was seine Genossen sind.

“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 139

“It is individuality which is the original and eternal within man; personality doesn’t matter so much. To pursue the education and development of this individuality as one’s highest vocation would be a divine egoism.”

Grade die Individualität ist das Ursprüngliche und Ewige im Menschen; an der Personalität ist so viel nicht gelegen. Die Bildung und Entwicklung dieser Individualität als höchsten Beruf zu treiben, wäre ein göttlicher Egoismus.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) # 60

“If there is an invisible church, then it is of the great paradox, which is inseparable from morality, and which must be distinguished from the merely philosophical. People who are so eccentric that they are completely serious in being and becoming virtuous understand one another in everything, find one another easily, and form a silent opposition against the prevailing immorality that pretends to be morality.”

Athenäumsfragmente 414
Variant translations:
People who are eccentric enough to be quite seriously virtuous understand each other everywhere, discover each other easily, and form a silent opposition to the ruling immorality that happens to pass for morality.
Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 414
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)
Contexte: If there is an invisible church, then it is of the great paradox, which is inseparable from morality, and which must be distinguished from the merely philosophical. People who are so eccentric that they are completely serious in being and becoming virtuous understand one another in everything, find one another easily, and form a silent opposition against the prevailing immorality that pretends to be morality. A certain mysticism of expression, which joined with romantic fantasy and grammatical understanding, can be something charming and good, often serves as a symbol of their beautiful secrets.

“Prudishness is pretense of innocence without innocence.”

“Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #31
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)
Contexte: Prudishness is pretense of innocence without innocence. Women have to remain prudish as long as men are sentimental, dense, and evil enough to demand of them eternal innocence and lack of education. For innocence is the only thing which can ennoble lack of education.

“Poetry can be criticized only through poetry.”

“Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #117
Contexte: Poetry can be criticized only through poetry. A critique which itself is not a work of art, either in content as representation of the necessary impression in the process of creation, or through its beautiful form and in its liberal tone in the spirit of the old Roman satire, has no right of citizenship in the realm of art.

“Do not waste your faith and love on the political world, but, in the divine world of science and art, offer up your inmost being in a fiery stream of eternal creation.”

Nicht in die politische Welt verschleudere du Glauben und Liebe, aber in der göttlichen Welt der Wissenschaft und der Kunst opfre dein Innerstes in den heiligen Feuerstrom ewiger Bildung.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 106

“In England … everything becomes professional … even the rogues of that island are pedants.”

“Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #67

“Moderation is the spirit of castrated narrow-mindedness.”

“Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #64
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“At the words “his philosophy, my philosophy,” one is always reminded of that line in Nathan: … “What kind of God is it who belongs to a man?””

Bei den Ausdrücken, „Seine Philosophie”, „Meine Philosophie”, erinnert man sich immer an die Worte im Nathan: „Wem eignet Gott? Was ist das für ein Gott, der einem Menschen eignet?”
Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 99, reference is to Lessing, Nathan der Weise

“You live only insofar as you live according to your own ideas.”

Man lebt nur insofern man nach seinen eignen Ideen lebt. Die Grundsätze sind nur Mittel, der Beruf ist Zweck an sich.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 82

“To disrespect the masses is moral; to honor them, lawful.”

Die Menge nicht zu achten, ist sittlich; sie zu ehren, ist rechtlich.
Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), “Athenaeum Fragments” § 211

“Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.”

Jeder ungebildete Mensch ist die Karikatur von sich selbst.
“Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #63
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“What men are among the other formations of the earth, artists are among men.”

Was die Menschen unter den andern Bildungen der Erde, das sind die Künstler unter den Menschen.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) # 43

“In a perfect literature all books should be only a single book, and in such an eternally developing book, the gospel of humanity and culture will be revealed.”

Auf eine ähnliche Weise sollen in der vollkommnen Litteratur alle Bücher nur Ein Buch seyn, und in einem solchen ewig werdenden Buche wird das Evangelium der Menschheit und der Bildung offenbart werden.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 95

“Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism.”

Aphorism 26, as translated in Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (1968), p. 151
Variant translation:
Wit is the appearance, the external flash, of fantasy. Hence its divinity and the similarity to the wit of mysticism.
As translated in The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (1996) edited by Frederick C. Beiser, p. 131

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any ideal, neither of an angel in heaven, nor of a hero in a poem or novel, nor one that is dreamed up or imagined: rather shalt thou love a man as he is.”

Du sollst dir kein Ideal machen, weder eines Engels im Himmel, noch eines Helden aus einem Gedicht oder Roman, noch eines selbstgeträumten oder fantasirten; sondern du sollst einen Mann lieben, wie er ist.
Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), “Athenaeum Fragments,” § 364

“Honour is the mysticism of legality.”

Aphorism 77, of Ideas as translated in The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (1996) edited by Frederick C. Beiser, p. 131

“The romantic poetry is a progressive universal poetry.”

Die romantische Poesie ist eine progressive Universalpoesie.
Progressive Universalpoesie (1798); in the German language, particularly in the Romantic schools, "Poesie" means both poetry as genre and faculty and the source of creativity to form poetry.

“A mediator is one who perceives the divinity within himself and who self-destructively sacrifices himself in order to reveal, communicate, and represent to all mankind this divinity in his conduct and actions, in his words and works.”

Ein Mittler ist derjenige, der Göttliches in sich wahrnimmt, und sich selbst vernichtend Preis giebt, um dieses Göttliche zu verkündigen, mitzutheilen, und darzustellen allen Menschen in Sitten und Thaten, in Worten und Werken.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 44

“What am I proud of, and what can I be proud of as an artist? Of the decision that separated and isolated me forever from everything ordinary.”

Worauf bin ich stolz und darf ich stolz seyn als Künstler?Auf den Entschluss, der mich auf ewig von (29) allem Gemeinen absonderte und isolirte.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 136

“The historian is a reversed prophet.”

Der Historiker ist ein rückwärtsgekehrter Prophet.
Athenäum, I, 2, 20: Fragmente
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“An artist is someone who carries his center within himself. Whoever lacks such a center has to choose some particular leader and mediator outside of himself.”

Ein Künstler ist, wer sein Centrum in sich selbst hat. Wem es da fehlt, der muss einen bestimmten Führer und Mittler ausser sich wählen.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 45

“As a transitional condition, skepticism is logical insurrection; as a system, it is anarchy. Skeptical method would therefore be much the same as rule by insurgents.”

Als vorübergehender Zustand ist der Skeptizismus logische Insurrektion; als System ist er Anarchie. Skeptische Methode wäre also ungefähr wie insurgente Regierung.
#97, as translated in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings (1996), vol. 1, p. 136
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“You wanted to destroy philosophy and poetry in order to make room for religion and morality”

Du wolltest die Philosophie zerstören, und die Poesie, um Raum zu gewinnen für die Religion und Moral, die du verkanntest: aber du hast nichts zerstören können als dich selber.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (1968) #90

“The Satan of the Italian and English poets may be poetic; but the German Satan is satanic; and thus one could say that Satan is a German invention.”

Der Satan der italienischen und englischen Dichter mag poetischer sein; aber der deutsche Satan ist satanischer; und insofern könnte man sagen, der Satan sei eine deutsche Erfindung.
Athenäumsfragmente 379; the Italian and English poets referred to are Dante, and John Milton.
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

“The Kantians’ conception of duty relates to the commandment of honor, the voice of God and one’s calling in us, as the dried plant to the fresh flower on the living stem.”

Die Pflicht der Kantianer verhält sich zu dem Gebot der Ehre, der Stimme des Berufs und der Gottheit in uns, wie die getrocknete Pflanze zur frischen Blume am lebenden Stamme.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 39

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