Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (German Man of Letters)

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel (1772–1829) was a German a German poet, literary critic, philosopher, philologist, and Indologist. He originated many philosophical ideas that inspired the early German Romantic movement. He was the brother of the scholar and critic August von Schlegel.

Born in Hanover, Schlegel studied at Gottingen and Leipzig. He eloped with Dorothea Veit, daughter of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, wife of financier Simon Veit, and mother of the religious painter Philipp Veit; this experience inspired a notorious romance, Lucinde (1799.)

Schlegel joined his brother at Jena, and they wrote and edited the literary journal Das Atheniium, a vehicle of the German Romantic movement. He studied oriental languages at Paris (1802–04) and, in 1808, published a pioneering work on Sanskrit and Indo-Germanic linguistics, Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (‘On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians.’) In 1808, Schlegel became a Roman Catholic and joined the Austrian Foreign Service, drawing up the Austrian proclamations against Napoleon I in 1809.

Schlegel’s best-known books are lectures on Über die neuere Geschichte (1811; A Course of Lectures on Modern History, 1849) and Geschichte der alten und neueren Literatur (1815; Lectures on the History of Literature, 1818.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Proverbial Wisdom

Virtue is reason which has become energy.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Virtue

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Humanity, Humankind

Good drama must be drastic.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Theater

Prudishness is pretense of innocence without innocence. Women have to remain prudish as long as men are sentimental, dense, and evil enough to demand of them eternal innocence and lack of education. For innocence is the only thing which can ennoble lack of education.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Innocence

The innermost meaning of sacrifice is the annihilation of the finite just because it is finite. In order to demonstrate that this is the only purpose, the most noble and beautiful must be chosen; above all, man, the fulfillment of the earth. Human sacrifices are the most natural sacrifices. Man, however, is more than the fulfillment of the earth; he is reasonable, and reason is free and nothing but an eternal self-determination toward the infinite. Thus man can sacrifice only himself, and that is what he does in the omnipresent sanctissimum of which the masses are not aware. All artists are self-sacrificing human beings, and to become an artist is nothing but to devote oneself to the subterranean gods. The meaning of divine creation is primarily revealed in the enthusiasm of annihilation. Only in the throes of death is the spark of eternal life ignited.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Creation

What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Society

Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Education

A critic is a reader who ruminates. Thus, he should have more than one stomach.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Criticism, Critics

Genius is, to be sure, not a matter of arbitrariness, but rather of freedom, just as wit, love, and faith, which once shall become arts and disciplines. We should demand genius from everybody, without, however, expecting it.
—Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Topics: Genius

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