“Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.”
Education
“An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.”
ArtAll Quotes by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“Form your life humanly, and you have done enough: but you will never reach the height of art and the depth of science without something divine.”
Art“God is each truly and exalted thing, therefore the individual himself to the highest degree. But are not nature and the world individuals?”
Nature“Where there is politics or economics, there is no morality.”
Politics“There is no self-knowledge but an historical one. No one knows what he himself is who does not know his fellow men, especially the most prominent one of the community, the master's master, the genius of the age.”
Age“Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet especially not against their poetry.”
Poetry“The German national character is a favorite subject of character experts, probably because the less mature a nation, the more she is an object of criticism and not of history.”
History“A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory.”
Truth“What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.”
Society“All men are somewhat ridiculous and grotesque, just because they are men and in this respect artists might well be regarded as man multiplied by two. So it is, was, and shall be.”
Respect“Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. The feminine ones are not idealistic, and the idealistic not feminine.”
Poetry“Novels are the Socratic dialogues of our time. Practical wisdom fled from school wisdom into this liberal form.”
Wisdom“The subject of history is the gradual realization of all that is practically necessary.”
History“Beauty is that which is simultaneously attractive and sublime.”
Beauty“Art and works of art do not make an artist sense and enthusiasm and instinct do.”
Art“If you want to see mankind fully, look at a family. Within the family minds become organically one, and for this reason the family is total poetry.”
Family“Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion.”
Future“Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.”
Poetry“Religion can emerge in all forms of feeling: here wild anger, there the sweetest pain here consuming hatred, there the childlike smile of serene humility.”
Anger“Set religion free, and a new humanity will begin.”
Religion