Quotes from Friedrich Hölderlin

Why do you like me more when I was prouder and wilder, more full of words, yet emptier?

Then and Now In younger days each morning I rose with joy, To weep at nightfall; now, in my later years, Though doubting I begin my day, yet Always its end is serene and holy.

I am mortal, born to love and to suffer.

Ein Gott ist der Mensch, wenn er träumt, ein Bettler, wenn er nachdenkt.

It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. A thousand times have I said it to her and to myself: the most beautiful is also the most sacred. And such was everything in her. Like her singing, even so was her life.

I grew up in the arms of the gods.

in the union of nature, loyalty is no dream! We part only to be more intimately at one, more divinely at peace with all, with each other. We die so as to live.

For the mindful god does detest untimely growth.

Thus the sons of earth now drink in The fire of heaven without danger. And it is our duty, poets, to stand Bare-headed under the storms of God, Grasping with our own hand The Father's beam itself, And to offer the gift of heaven, Wrapped in song, to the people. From "As On a Holiday" ("Wie Wenn am Feiertage")

Sometimes his genius goes dark and sinks down into the bitter well of his heart. But mostly his apocalyptic star glitters wondrously

Qué son los siglos, comparados a ese instante en que dos seres se adivinan y se acercan?

Voll Verdienst, doch dichterisch, wohnet der Mensch auf dieser Erde.

Man kann auch in die Höhe fallen, so wie in die Tiefe.

The God, when he draws near, will the heart stand fast. But, oh my, shame! when of My shame! And let me say at once That I approached to see the Heavenly, And they cast me down, deep down Below the living, into the dark cast down The false priest that I am, to sing, For those who have ears to hear, the warning song. There

Near andHard to grasp, the god.Yet where danger lies,Grows that which saves.

What has always made a hell on earth has been that man has tried to make it his heaven.

Ah, where will I findFlowers, come winter,And where the sunshineAnd shade of the earth?Walls stand coldAnd speechless, in the windThe weathervanes creak.

For our generation walks as in Hades, without the divine.

Near and hard to grasp Is the God. But where danger is Deliverance also grows

I can think of no people more fragmented... Craftsmen you see, but no humans, thinkers, but no humans, priests, but no humans, lords and servants, boys and established peoples but no humans--is this not like a battlefield, where hands and arms and all limbs lie chaotically in pieces, while the spilled blood of life runs into the sand?

What love and spirit give cannot be extorted. The state has always been made a hell by man's wanting to make it his heaven. The state is nothing but the coarse husk around the seed of life, the wall around the human fruits and flowers. Yet what good is a wall when the soil of our garden is parched? ... O inspiration, you will bring us the springtime of peoples again. The state cannot command your presence, but if it does not obstruct you, you will come.

What has always made a hell on earth has been that man has tried to make it his heaven.