Friedrich Schiller quotes
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805): German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. The library holds 383 quotes by Friedrich Schiller, drawn from Artists, Honor to Women, Hymn to Joy and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, time, nature, love, death
The best-known Friedrich Schiller quotes
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Life is not the supreme good; but of all earthly ills the chief is guilt.
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Every great mind seeks to labour for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good.
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Nature stands in eternal league with genius; what the one promises the other as surely performs.
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What reason, like the careful ant, draws laboriously together, the wind of accident collects in one brief moment.
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The loyal heart of the good man is in these times the only storm-proof place of shelter.
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He who has given satisfaction to the best of his time has lived for ages.
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It is the monotony of his own nature that makes solitude intolerable to a man.
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A god is, a holy will lives, however man’s will may waver; high over all time and space the highest thought weaves itself everywhere into life’s web.
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It is by no gradual process we detach ourselves from (lose our hold of) life.
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Man is an imitative creature, and whoever is foremost leads the herd.
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Even in a righteous cause force is a fearful thing; God only helps when men can help no more.
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By what the inner voice speaks the trusting soul is never deceived.
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Let not man tempt the gods, or ever desire to pry into what they graciously conceal under a veil of darkness or terror.
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In the ardor of pursuit men soon forget the goal from which they start.
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Here is no home for a man: every one drives past another hastily and unneighbourly, and inquires not after his pain.
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It is not enough that a poet possess inspiration; his inspiration must be that of a cultured spirit.
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In matters of faith the voice of nature has no standing (before the Inquisition).
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The ideals are all melted into air which once swelled the intoxicated heart.
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Only in want and degradation can a life of sensual profligacy be atoned for.
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This century is not ripe for my ideal; I live a citizen of those that are to come.
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Out of coarser clay has Nature created me, and I am drawn by lust to the dust.
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There are only two virtues, were they but always united: goodness always also great, and greatness always also good.
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He is a madman (Rasender) who does not embrace and hold fast the good fortune which a god (ein Gott) has given into his hand.
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Poetry ought to go straight to the heart, because it has come from the heart; and aim at the man in the citizen, and not the citizen in the man.
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God comes to our help only when there is no more help for us in man.
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There are no more any giants now; for the weak, force is a giant at all times.
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Measure not by a scale of perfection the meagre product of reality.
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Did I know that my heart was bound to temporal possessions, I would throw the flaming brand among them with my own hand.
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Not without a shudder may a human hand clutch into the mysterious urn of destiny.
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The Church, the holy, the high, it is that rears for us the ladder to heaven.
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It is not flesh and blood, it is the heart, that makes fathers and sons.
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Every crime has in the moment of its perpetration its own avenging angel.
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It is often even wise to reveal what cannot long remain concealed.
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The vulgar estimate themselves by what they do; the noble by what they are.
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What actually constitutes the human element in man is a kindly spirit.
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What religion do I profess! None of all you name to me. Why none? Out of respect to religion.
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Man has been created free, is free, even were he born in chains.
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What is the majority? Majority is nonsense (Unsinn). Understanding has always been only with the minority.
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Every change is a cause of uneasiness to the favoured of fortune.
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This is the very curse of an evil deed, that it engenders and must bring forth more evil.
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Rascals are always sociable, and the test of a man’s nobility is the small pleasure he has in others’ society.
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Without a home must the soldier go, a changeful wanderer, and can warm himself at no home-lit hearth.
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The old falls, the time changes, and new life blossoms out of the ruins.
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Every other master may be known by what he expresses; what he wisely suppresses reveals to me the master of style.
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Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the over-mastering present.
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In the smallest cottage there is room enough for two lovers.
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Every other master is known by what he utters; the master of style commends himself to me by what he wisely passes over in silence.
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A new administration of affairs raises up new men, and qualifications formerly of service become soon antiquated.
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Control the heart’s bitterness. Nothing good comes of returning hatred for hatred.
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The world is all perfect except where man comes with his burden of woe.
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There is no hindering people from thinking what thoughts they like.
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Genius ever stands with nature in solemn union, and what the one foretells the other will fulfil.
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Appearance rules the world, and we see justice only on the stage.
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He who fears nothing is not less mighty than he whom everything fears.
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Honour to the women! they plait and weave roses of heaven for the life of earth.
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Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the overmastering present.
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Good out of good is what every man of intellect can fashion, but it takes genius to evoke good out of bad.
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It is his heart, and not his opinion, that is an honour to a man.
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Dangerous it is to rouse the lion, fatal is the tiger’s tooth, but the most frightful of terrors is man in his self-delusion.
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Friends show me what I can do; foes teach me what I should do.
Where these quotes come from
- Artists (2 quotes)
- Honor to Women (1 quote)
- Hymn to Joy (1 quote)
- Don Carlos (1 quote)
- The Maid of Orleans (1 quote)
- The Victory Feast (1 quote)
- Votive Tablets, The Key (1 quote)
- Sentences of Confucius, Time (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .