Top 356 Quotes & Sayings by Friedrich Schiller

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a German dramatist Friedrich Schiller.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works that he had left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents of their philosophical vision.

There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.
Live with your century; but do not be its creature.
Great souls suffer in silence. — © Friedrich Schiller
Great souls suffer in silence.
To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine.
Appearance rules the world.
Keep true to the dreams of your youth.
Honesty prospers in every condition of life.
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe.
Freedom can occur only through education.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
That which is so universal as death must be a benefit.
In the society, where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully. — © Friedrich Schiller
In the society, where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully.
Nothing leads to good that is not natural.
It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long.
The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
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.
No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.
It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.
Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful.
With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
The key to education is the experience of beauty.
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.
Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air.
The strong man is strongest when alone.
Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.
It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
To save all we must risk all.
Not without a shudder may the human hand reach into the mysterious urn of destiny.
He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.
Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.
The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh.
A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.
The history of the world is the world's court of justice.
Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.
The universe is one of God's thoughts.
Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him. — © Friedrich Schiller
Opposition always inflames the enthusiast, never converts him.
Aesthetic matters are fundamental for the harmonious development of both society and the individual.
Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays.
Will it, and set to work briskly.
Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.
A noble heart will always capitulate to reason.
Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.
The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.
Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine.
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.
The will of man is his happiness. — © Friedrich Schiller
The will of man is his happiness.
They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.
Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.
Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor.
Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.
Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor.
Mankind is made great or little by its own will.
Votes should be weighed not counted.
Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.
Art is the daughter of freedom.
I am better than my reputation.
He who considers too much will perform little.
There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.
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