“Appearance should never attain reality,
And if nature conquers, then must art retire.”
To Goethe, when he put Voltaire's Mahomet on the stage (1800)
Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), edited bt Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 284
“Did you think the lion was sleeping because he didn't roar?”
Die Verschwörung des Fiesco (The Conspiracy of Fiesco), Act I, sc. xviii (1783)
“O who knows what slumbers in the background of the times?”
Act I, sc. i
Don Carlos (1787)
“One cannot prevent people from thinking what they please.”
Man kann den Menschen nicht verwehren, Zu denken, was sie wollen.
Maria Stuart, Act I, sc. viii (1800)
“What is not abandoned is never completely lost.”
Was man nicht aufgibt, hat man nie verloren.
Maria Stuart, Act II, sc. v (1800)
Letter 8
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
“Great souls endure in silence.”
Act I, sc. iv ; as translated by R. D. Boylan and Joseph Mellish (1902)
Variant: ""Great spirits suffer patiently""; as translated by A. Leslie and Jeanne R. Willson (1983)
Don Carlos (1787)
“Who reflects too much will accomplish little.”
Act III, sc. i
Wilhelm Tell (1803)
Act IV, sc. v, Kellermeister (Master of the Cellar)
Wallenstein (1798), Part I - Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini)
“A moment lived in paradise
Is not atoned for too dearly by death.”
Act I, sc. v
Don Carlos (1787)
Act I, sc. i
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)
“Pain is short, and joy is eternal.”
The Maid of Orleans (1801), last line
Letter 3
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
“The strong man is strongest when alone.”
Tell, Act I, sc. iii, as translated by Sir Thomas Martin
Wilhelm Tell (1803)
Letter 2
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)