Friedrich Hölderlin quotes

Friedrich Hölderlin was a German poet and philosopher, regarded as one of the most important figures in German Romanticism. His poetry is celebrated for its deep emotional intensity and profound engagement with classical themes. He greatly influenced later writers and thinkers with his visionary and lyrical works. Here are 16 of his quotes:

The earth with yellow pears And overgrown with roses wild Upon the pond is bent, And swans divine, With kisses drunk You drop your heads In the sublimely sobering water. But where, with winter come, am I To find, alas, the floweres, and where The sunshine And the shadow of the world? Cold the walls stand And the wordless, in the wind The weathercocks are rattling. (Friedrich Hölderlin)
Being at one is god-like and good, but human, too human, the maniaWhich insists there is only the One, one country, one truth, and one way. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
You seek life, and a godly fire Gushes and gleams for you out of the earth, As, with shuddering long, you Hurl yourself down to the flames of the Etna. So by a queen's wanton whim Pearls were dissolved in wine- heed her not! What folly, poet, to cast your riches Into that bright and bubbling cup! Yet still are you holy to me, as the might of the earth That bore you away, audaciously perishing! And I would follow the hero into the depths Did love not hold me. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
Before either of us knew it, we belonged to each other. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
I call on Fate to give me back my soul. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
Now we were standing close to the summit's rim, gazing out into the endless East. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
What is the wisdom of a book compared with the wisdom of an angel? View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
We are nothing; what we search for is everything. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
What is all that men have done and thought over thousands of years, compared with one moment of love. But in all Nature, too, it is what is nearest to perfection, what is most divinely beautiful! View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. (Friedrich Hölderlin)
What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven. As translated by Michael Hamburger. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
You have a head and a heart? Reveal only one of them, I say; If you reveal both at once, doubly they'll damn you, for both. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
Wir sind nichts; was wir suchen ist alles. (We are nothing; what we search for is everything.) View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
Wherein lies the danger, grows also the saving power. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin
What is all that men have done and thought over thousands of years, compared with one moment of love. But in all Nature, too, it is what is nearest to perfection, what is most divinely beautiful! There all stairs lead from the threshold of life. From there we come, to there we go. View quote
Friedrich Hölderlin