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Common natures pay with what they do, noble ones with what they are.

— Friedrich Schiller

Gemeine Naturen
Zahlen mit dem, was sie thun, edle mit dem, was sie sind.

Original text (German)

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More quotes by Friedrich Schiller

No cause has he to say his doom is harsh,
Who's made the master of his destiny.

Wilhelm Tell (1803)

Have Love. Not love alone for one,
But men, as man, thy brothers call;
And scatter, like the circling sun,
Thy charities on all.

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

Wallenstein (1798)

I speak with the Eternal through the instrument of nature, — through the world's history: I read the soul of the artist in his Apollo.

Love is only known by him who hopelessly persists in love.

Don Carlos (1787)

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Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Friedrich Schiller (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.