List of Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes

In Every Remodelling Of The Present, The Existing Condition Of Things Must Be Supplanted By A New One. Now Every Variety Of Circumstances In Which Men Find Themselves, Every Object Which Surrounds Them, Communicates A Definite Form And Impress To Their Internal Nature. This Form Is Not Such That It Can Change And Adapt Itself To Any Other A Man May Choose To Receive; And The End Is Foiled, While The Power Is Destroyed, When We Attempt To Impose Upon That Which Is Already Stamped In The Soul A Form Which Disagrees With It.

The Mere Reality Of Life Would Be Inconceivably Poor Without The Charm Of Fancy, Which Brings In Its Bosom, No Doubt, As Many Vain Fears As Idle Hopes, But Lends Much Oftener To The Illusions It Calls Up A Gay Flattering Hue Than One Which Inspires Terror.

Real Inward Devotion Knows No Prayer But That Arising From The Depths Of Its Own Feelings.

Wherever The Citizen Becomes Indifferent To His Fellows, So Will The Husband Be To His Wife, And The Father Of A Family Toward The Members Of His Household.

It Is Continued Temperance Which Sustains The Body For The Longest Period Of Time, And Which Most Surely Preserves It Free From Sickness.

The Sea Has Been Called Deceitful And Treacherous, But There Lies In This Trait Only The Character Of A Great Natural Power, Which, To Speak According To Our Own Feelings, Renews Its Strength, And, Without Reference To Joy Or Sorrow, Follows Eternal Laws Which Are Imposed By A Higher Power.

Man Is Naturally More Disposed To Beneficent Than Selfish Actions. This We Learn Even From The History Of Savages. The Domestic Virtues Have Something In Them So Inviting And Genial, And The Public Virtues Of The Citizen Something So Grand And Inspiring, That Even He Who Is Barely Uncorrupted, Is Seldom Able To Resist Their Charm.

The Sensual And Spiritual Are Linked Together By A Mysterious Bond, Sensed By Our Emotions, Though Hidden From Our Eyes. To This Double Nature Of The Visible And Invisible World - To The Profound Longing For The Latter, Coupled With The Feeling Of The Sweet Necessity For The Former, We Owe All Sound And Logical Systems Of Philosophy, Truly Based On The Immutable Principles Of Our Nature, Just As From The Same Source Arise The Most Senseless Enthusiasms.

The Legislator Should Keep Two Things Constantly Before His Eyes: 1. The Pure Theory Developed To Its Minutest Details; 2. The Particular Condition Of Actual Things Which He Designs To Reform.

When We Are Not Too Anxious About Happiness And Unhappiness, But Devote Ourselves To The Strict And Unsparing Performance Of Duty, Then Happiness Comes Of Itself - Nay, Even Springs From The Midst Of A Life Of Troubles And Anxieties And Privations.

The Very Variety Arising From The Union Of Numbers Of Individuals Is The Highest Good Which Social Life Can Confer, And This Variety Is Undoubtedly Lost In Proportion To The Degree Of State Interference.

Reason Cannot Desire For Man Any Condition Other Than That In Which Not Only Every Individual Enjoys The Most Absolute, Unbounded Freedom To Develop Himself Out Of Himself, In True Individuality, But In Which Physical Nature, As Well, Need Receive No Other Shaping By Human Hands Than That Which Is Given To Her Voluntarily By Each Individual, According To The Measure Of His Wants And His Inclinations, Restricted Only By The Limits Of His Energy And His Rights.