Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (November 10, 1759 – May 9, 1805) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During the last few years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he greatly discussed issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Die Xenien (The Xenies), a collection of short but harshly satiric poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies of their aesthetic agenda.
Some of his plays are more famous as the librettos for noted operas than as plays - among them Gioachino Rossini s "William Tell Overture", Giuseppe Verdi s "Don Carlos" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky s "The Maid of Orleans".
The nation is worthless that will not, with pleasure, venture all for,its honor.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
To save all we must risk all.
There are three lessons I would write-Three words, as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light,Upon the heart of men. Have hope! though clouds environ round,And gladness hides her face in scorn,Put thou the shadow from thy brow,No night but hath its morn. Have love! not love alone for one, But man as man thy brother call,And scatter like the circling sun,Thy charities on all.
Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air.
If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To please many is bad.
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
O friends, no more these sounds!Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy!,When the mechanic has to mend a watch he lets the wheels run out; but the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act, and a wheel has to be exchanged for another during its revolutions.
It seems a bad thing and detrimental to the creative work of the mind if Reason makes to close an examination of the ideas as they come pouring in -at the very gateway, as it were. Looked at in isolation, a thought may seem very trivial or very fantastic; but it may be made important by another thought that comes after it, and in conjunction with other thoughts that may seem equally absurd, it may serve to form a most effective link. Reason cannot form any opinion on all this unless it retains the thought long enough to look at it in connection with the others. On the other hand, where there is a creative mind, Reason -so it seems to me- relaxes its watch upon the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then does it look them through and examine them in a mass.
In the case of the creative mind, it seems to me, the intellect has withdrawn its watchers from the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then does it review and inspect the multitude. You worthy critics, or whatever you may call yourselves, are ashamed or afraid of the momentary and passing madness which is found in all real creators, the longer or shorter duration of which distinguishes the thinking artist from the dreamer. Hence your complaints of unfruitfulness, for you reject too soon and discriminate too severely.
While the gods remained more human, the men were more divine.
Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.
I feel an army in my fist.
Man is not better treated by nature in his first start than her other works are; so long as he is unable to act for himself as an independent intelligence she acts for him. But the very fact that constitutes him a man is that he does not remain stationary, where nature has placed him, that he can pass with his reason, retracing the steps nature had made him anticipate, that he can convert the work of necessity into one of free solution, and elevate physical necessity into a moral law.
Oh how can we, scarce mastering our passions, expect that youth should keep itself in check?,Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart.
The man of courage thinks not of himself. Help the oppressed and put thy trust in God.
The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.
It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons.
Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.
Mankind is made great or little by its own will.
Keep true to the dreams of your youth.
There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.
Art is the right hand of Nature. The latter has only given us being, the former has made us men.
Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.
Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.
Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.
Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine.
He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.
Nothing leads to good that is not natural.
Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
Art is the daughter of freedom.
They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.
Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.
Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful.
The strong man is strongest when alone.
A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast. .
