Art is the daughter of freedom.
Friedrich SchillerRead
Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Utility is prioritized above all else in modern society, demanding allegiance from both individuals and talents.
Friedrich Schiller's quote highlights the pervasive influence of utility in contemporary life, suggesting that society's values prioritize usefulness over other virtues. In this context, individuals are compelled to align their abilities and efforts with what is deemed practically beneficial, rendering moral and artistic pursuits secondary to the demands of functionality and service.
Themes
UtilitySocietyServiceTalentAllegiance
In practice
Example use cases
During a keynote speech on modern entrepreneurship, one could quote Schiller to emphasize the importance of aligning business practices with practical outcomes.
More from Friedrich Schiller
All quotes βThere is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.
Friedrich SchillerRead
Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.
Friedrich SchillerRead
While the womanly god demands our veneration, the godlike woman kindles our love; but while we allow ourselves to melt in the celestial loveliness, the celestial self-sufficiency holds us back in awe.
Friedrich SchillerRead
As noble Art has survived noble nature, so too she marches ahead of it, fashioning and awakening by her inspiration. Before Truth sends her triumphant light into the depths of the heart, imagination catches its rays, and the peaks of humanity will be glowing when humid night still lingers in the valleys.
Friedrich SchillerRead
Wise to resolve, patient to perform.
Friedrich SchillerRead
Similar quotes
Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible; but on the level of God, it will forever remain the most disturbing of mysteries.
Elie WieselRead
And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter, - we need never read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?
Henry David ThoreauRead
All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.
Nhat HanhRead
What is my nothingness to the stupor that awaits you?
Arthur RimbaudRead
I think it is incumbent on anyone who can to lift human dignity to the highest possible levels, maintaining one's own and helping to raise that of others.
Henry RollinsRead