The Evil Neighbor

In Act 4 of Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell, a man named Stüssi says: Ja, wohl dem, der sein Feld bestellt in Ruh, / Und ungekränkt daheim sitzt bei den Seinen. Yes, happy is the man who tills his field in peace and sits at home, unharmed, with his family.

Tell answers: Es kann der Frömmste nicht im Frieden bleiben, / Wenn es dem bösen Nachbar nicht gefällt. The most pious man cannot live in peace if it does not please his evil neighbor.

The line is often quoted in a slightly different form, in Frieden and Nachbarn.

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