Friedrich Rückert quotes
Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866): German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. The library holds 63 quotes by Friedrich Rückert, drawn from Goethe. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, wisdom, happiness, love, truth
The best-known Friedrich Rückert quotes
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Youth, enthusiasm, and tenderness are like the days of spring. Instead of complaining, O my heart, of their brief duration, try to enjoy them.
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The result (of things) is obvious, but the intention is never clear.
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I stand in God’s hand and rest in God’s bosom; before Him I feel little, in Him I feel great.
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O heart, only try! To be good is so easy, and to appear so is such a heavy burden.
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Out of youth-time, out of youth-time sounds a lay of mine ever; O how so far off lies, how so far off lies, what once was mine!
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There is no art in freeing spirits; to bind them by art is art.
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The wise are those who travel through error to truth; the foolish are those who persist in their error.
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He who will be happy through life must leave the world alone in its own mad career.
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People are wise for the past day in the evening, but never wise enough for the coming one.
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Cattle go blindfold to the common to crop the wholesome herbs, but man learns to distinguish what is wholesome (Heil) and what is poisonous (Gift) only by experience.
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No evil is felt till it comes, and when it comes no counsel helps. Wisdom is always too early and too late.
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Be joyful or sorrowful, the heart needs a second heart. Joy shared is joy doubled; pain shared is pain divided.
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Out of the smallest a great is at length composed, and none of all can fail, unless the whole is fated to break up.
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I must—that is the barrier within which the world confines me on the one hand and Nature on the other.
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True and good will be reconciled when both are wedded in the beautiful.
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He who knows how to sunder jest and earnest is a wise man, and who by cheerful playfulness reinvigorates himself for strenuous diligence.
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The river remains troubled that has not gone through a lake; the heart is impure that has not gone through a sorrow.
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A vulgar mind is proud in prosperity and humble in adversity; a noble mind is humble in prosperity and proud in adversity.
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The sun’s power cannot draw a wandering star from its path. How then could a human being fall out of God’s love!
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There is a way from every point in a circle to the centre; from the farthest error there is a way back to God Himself.
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The distinction between man and nature is, that man is a being becoming, and nature a being become.
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Much we learn only to forget it again; to stand by the goal, we must traverse all the way to it.
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Between to-day and to-morrow are graves, and between promising and fulfilling are chasms.
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He who feels at ease at home, runs not out into the world beyond. The many voyages of discovery over the world argue a world-wide discontent.
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The true and the good will be reconciled when the two are wedded to each other in the beautiful.
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Love was bestowed on the world by God, in order to train the soul for God.
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In every life there is an upward and a downward tendency (Trieb); he is to be praised who remains steadfast in the mean between.
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You may know a wise man by his election of an aim, and a sagacious by his election of the means.
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Who is mightier than death? He who can smile when death threatens.
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The wife can carry more out of the house in her apron than the man can bring in on a harvest-waggon.
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The river remains troubled that has not passed through a lake, the heart unpurified that has not passed through a woe.
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Moderation is good, but moderation alone is no virtue (Tugend).
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Those are wise who through error press on to truth; those are fools who hold fast by error.
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Not he whose father and mother are dead is orphaned in the world, but he who has won for heart and mind no love and no knowledge.
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Not till a new thing sprouts up does a man ever enjoy intelligently that which is old.
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Can a planet wander away even from the power of the sun? How then can man fall out of the love of God?
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He will always lack what is best who does not give credit to what others know.
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Before every one stands an image (Bild) of what he ought to be; so long as he is not that, his peace is not complete.
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In the same measure in which you wish to receive, you must give. If you wish for a whole heart, give a whole life.
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Many a one thinks himself free and sees not the bands that bind him.
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I too was born in Arcadia, and was lured away by envious Fortune. “Is this the way back?” asked I at every bridge-way; “This the entrance?” asked I at every portal.
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Only in dreams does the happiness of the earth dwell.
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Men of the first quality learn nothing, and become wise; men of the second rank become sensible (klug), and learn long; men of the third sort remain stupid, and learn words.
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Concern for the future boots not; we feel no evil till it comes. And when we feel it, no counsel avails; wisdom is always too early and too late.
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He who says, “I sought, yet I found not,” be sure he lies; he who says, “I sought not and found,” be sure he deceives; he who says, “I sought and found,” him believe—he speaks true.
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My only wish is that my wishes should be at rest.
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Be good, and let men say ill of thee; he who has no sin to bear of his own can more easily bear that of others.
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What Heaven has taken away, Heaven can make good.
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Thou art not required to search into the nature of God, but into the nature of the beings which he has created.
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The fool needs company, the wise man solitude.
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Love is at once easy to satisfy and insatiable.
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Solicitude about the future never profits; we feel no evil till it comes; and when we feel it, no counsel (Rath) helps us; wisdom is always too early or too late.
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What must be can never be too quickly done.
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Love is the oldest-newest sole world-event.
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Though thou art disappointed in a hope, never let hope fail thee; though one door is shut, there are thousands still open for thee.
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Whoso would find God must bring him with him; thou seest him in things outside of thee, only when he is within thee.
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Thy eye can make the world dark or bright for thee; as thou look’st on it, it will weep or laugh.
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To continue eternally young is, as poets write, the highest bliss of life; wouldst thou attain to it, thou must die young.
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Truth is the easiest part of all to play (das leichteste Spiel von allen). Present thyself as thou art (stelle dich selber dar), and thou runnest no risk of falling out of thy rôle.
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Joy knowest thou not if thou knowest only joys; the whole light is wanting to thee if thou breakest it up into rays.