They have founded the whole structure of their happiness on these very illusions, which ought to be combated… — Friedrich Schiller
They have founded the whole structure of their happiness on these very illusions, which ought to be combated and dissipated by the light of knowledge, and they would think they were paying too dearly for a truth which begins by robbing them of all that has value in their sight. It would be necessary that they should be already sages to love wisdom: a truth that was felt at once by him to whom philosophy owes its name.
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More from this book
Live with your century; but do not be its creature. Work for your contemporaries; but create what they need, not what they praise.
No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.
Nothing, it is true, is more common than for both Science and Art to pay homage to the spirit of the age, and for creative taste to accept the law of critical taste.
