Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schillerwas a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up 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 he 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...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth10 November 1759
CountryGermany
Spring flies, and with it all the train it leads; and flowers, in fading, leave us but their seeds.
Never the grave gives back what it has won!
Pain is short, and joy is eternal.
O the eye's light is a noble gift of Heaven! All beings live from light, each fair created thing; the very plants turn with a joyful transport to the light.
Men show no mercy and expect no mercy, when honor calls, or when they fight for their idols or their gods.
O God, how lovely still is life!
Be true, and thou shalt fetter time with everlasting chain.
Like a dart the present glances, Silent stands the past sublime.
Love can sun the realms of night.
Dear is my friend--yet from my foe, as from my friend, comes good: My friend shows what I can do, and my foe what I should.
He who never ventures beyond actuality will never win the prize of truth.
When the gods were more manlike, Men were more godlike.
An honest man you may form of windle-straws, but to make a rogue you must have grist.
I know that we often tremble at an empty terror; yet the false fancy brings a real misery.