QuoteProject
All things must; man is the only creature that wills.
Friedrich Schiller
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that while everything in nature follows a predetermined course, humans have the unique ability to exert their will and make choices.

Friedrich Schiller's quote emphasizes the fundamental difference between humans and other creatures in the natural world. While all beings are subject to the laws of nature and must follow their inherent paths, humans possess the distinct capability to shape their own destinies through conscious choice and willpower. This highlights the importance of human agency and the potential for self-determination in contrast to the inevitability that governs other forms of life.

Themes

WillChoiceAgencyNatureHumanDestiny

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about personal development, one might quote this to inspire self-motivation.

More from Friedrich Schiller

Art is the daughter of freedom.
Friedrich SchillerRead
There 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

He who only wishes and hopes does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own destiny.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Nothing in life is ever as simple as we imagine.
Arthur GoldenRead
People who understand everything get no stories.
Bertolt BrechtRead
Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.
Herman MelvilleRead
Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of paradoxes, and one of those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people.
Shashi TharoorRead
Likewise grace and glory are referred to the same genus, since grace is nothing other than a certain first beginning of glory in us.
Thomas AquinasRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.