“Life is earnest, art is gay.”

— Friedrich Schiller, Wallenstein, 1798, Prologue

About Friedrich Schiller

1759 – 1805

German poet, playwright and philosopher, author of "The Robbers" and "Ode to Joy".

“A jest loses its point when the jester laughs himself.”

“I know that oft we tremble at an empty terror, but the false phantasm brings a real misery.”

“All men become brothers where thy happy wing-beats are.”

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

“The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.”

“In art, as in nature and in life, relations are modes of interaction.”

“We do not pretend that life is all beauty.”

“Art like life should be free, since both are experimental.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”