On the Aesthetic Education of Man Quotes

“Man is never so authentically himself than when at play.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“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.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Man is only fully human when he plays!”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Der Mensch spielt nur, wo er in voller Bedeutung des Wortes Mensch ist, und er ist nur da ganz Mensch, wo er spielt.”
― Friedrich Schiller, Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen (Großdruck)

“Die Menschheit hat ihre Würde verloren, aber die Kunst hat sie gerettet und aufbewahrt in bedeutenden Steinen; die Wahrheit lebt in der Täuschung fort, und aus dem Nachbilde wird das Urbild wieder hergestellt werden.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“The child of nature, when he breaks loose, becomes a madman; but the art scholar, when he breaks loose, becomes a debased character.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“El artista es hijo de sus tiempos, pero desdichado de él si, a la vez, es su alumno o incluso su favorito.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“He can never learn that he is actually commensurate with this idea, therefore in the full signification of the word, a man, so long as he excludes either one of these two impulses (the sense and form impulses), or only satisfies them alternately; for so long as he only feels, his person or his absolute existence remains to him a mystery, and so does his condition or his existence in time, so long as he only thinks.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Strictness to oneself joined with tenderness towards others, forms a truly excellent character. But for the most part, the man who is mild towards others, will be so towards himself, and he who is severe towards himself will be the same towards others; a character which is tender towards itself and severe towards others, is of all the most contemptible.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“The majority of men are far too weary and exhausted by the struggle for existence to gird themselves for a new and harder struggle against error. Happy to escape the hard labor of thinking for themselves, they are only too glad to resign to others the guardianship of their thoughts. And if it should happen that higher promptings stir within them, they embrace with avid faith the formulas that state and priesthood hold in readiness for such an event. If these unhappy men deserve our compassion, we are rightly contemptuous of those others whom a kindlier fate has freed from the yoke of physical needs, but who by their own choice continue to bow beneath it. Such people prefer the twilight of obscure ideas, where feeling is given full rein, and fancy can fashion at will convenient images, to the rays of truth that put to flight the fond delusions of their dreams. It is on precisely these illusions, which the unwelcome light of knowledge is meant to dissipate, that they have founded the whole edifice of their happiness—how can they be expected to pay so dearly for a truth that begins by depriving them of all they hold dear? They would first have to be wise in order to love wisdom: a truth already felt by him who gave philosophy her name.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“If truth is to be victorious in her conflict of forces, she must herself first become a force and appoint some drive to be her champion in the realm of phenomena; for drives are the only motive forces in the sensible world. If she has hitherto displayed so little of her conquering power, this was due, not to the intellect that was powerless to unveil her, but to the heart that closed itself against her, and to the drive that refused to act on her behalf.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“We know that the sensibility of the psyche depends for its intensity upon the liveliness, for its scope upon the richness, of the imagination. The preponderance of the analytical faculty must, however, of necessity, deprive the imagination of its energy and warmth, while a more restricted sphere of objects must reduce its wealth. Hence, the abstract thinker very often has a cold heart, since he dissects his impressions, and impressions can move the soul only as long as they remain whole; while the man of practical affairs often has a narrow heart, since his imagination, imprisoned within the unvarying confines of his own calling, is incapable of extending itself to appreciate other ways of seeing and knowing.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Así, pues, la ilustración del entendimiento no merece respeto, si no en cuanto que se refleja en el carácter. Pero esto no basta; en cierto modo, la ilustración ha de proceder también del carácter, porque el camino que conduce al intelecto ha de abrirlo el corazón. Educar la facultad sensible es, por tanto, la más urgente necesidad de nuestro tiempo, no sólo porque es un medio de hacer eficaces en la vida los progresos del saber, sino porque contribuye a la mejora del conocimiento mismo.”
― Friedrich Schiller, La educación estética del hombre en una serie de cartas (Colección Biblioteca Nacional de España)

“Satisfechos de eludir el amargo esfuerzo del pensamiento, gustan los más de abandonar a otros la tarea de administrar sus conceptos; y cuando sucede que en sus ánimos se agitan exigencias de más alta espiritualidad,”
― Friedrich Schiller, La educación estética del hombre en una serie de cartas (Colección Biblioteca Nacional de España)

“Atrévete a ser sabio. Es menester energía del ánimo para dominar los obstáculos que al saber oponen la indolencia de la naturaleza y la cobardía del corazón.”
― Friedrich Schiller, La educación estética del hombre en una serie de cartas (Colección Biblioteca Nacional de España)

“razón, es cierto, exige unidad; pero la Naturaleza quiere multiplicidad, y ambas legislaciones gravitan sobre el hombre.”
― Friedrich Schiller, La educación estética del hombre en una serie de cartas (Colección Biblioteca Nacional de España)

“Doğa, ussuz olana da, gerekseme üzerinden özgürlük vermiş ve karanlık, hayvanca yaşamına bir parça özgürlük ışığı serpmiştir.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man

“Voy acercándome al término a que quería conduciros por tan árido sendero. Permitidme que sigamos un corto trecho de camino, y se abrirá una amplia perspectiva, un alegre panorama, que nos recompensará quizá del esfuerzo realizado”
― Friedrich Schiller, Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen (Gold Collection)

“If desire seizes directly upon its object, contemplation removes its object to a distance, and makes it into a true and inalienable possession by putting it beyond the reach of passion.”
― Friedrich Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man

“Su interés en la obra es simplemente moral o simplemente físico, y no es precisamente lo que debe ser: estético. Lectores tales gozan de una poesía sería y patética como de un sermón, y de una poesía humorística e ingenua, como de una bebida embriagadora, y carecen lo bastante de gusto para exigir edificación en una tragedia o epopeya.”
― Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man