Quotes by Wilhelm von Humboldt

“Happiness is so nonsynonymous with joy or pleasure that it is not infrequently sought and felt in grief and deprivation.”

“Faith can be interested in results only, for a truth once recognized as such puts an end to the believer's thinking.”

“All situations in which the interrelationships between extremes are involved are the most interesting and instructive.”

“To judge a man means nothing other than to ask: What content does he give to the form of humanity? What concept should we have of humanity if he were its only representative?”

“All growth toward perfection is but a returning to original existence.”

“Human nature must be something which always remains one and the same, but which may be carried out in manifold ways.”

“For even if we know very little that is certain about spirit or soul, the true nature of the body, of materiality, is totally unknown and incomprehensible to us.”

“If something possesses no capacity for activity whatever, it is nothing; it may be wholly penetrated, but it cannot be touched. Therefore passivity and reaction are everywhere equal.”

“However great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue.”

“True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body the two are ever united. ”

“Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.”

“It is almost more important how a person takes his fate than what it is.”

“Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.”

“When we ... devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing performance of duty then happiness comes of itself.”

“When we ... devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing performance of duty ihen happiness comes of itself.”

“When we ... devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing performance of duty then happiness comes of itself.”

“Es gibt schlechterdings gewisse Kenntnisse, die allgemein sein müssen, und noch mehr eine gewisse Bildung der Gesinnungen und des Charakters, die keinem fehlen darf. Jeder ist offenbar nur dann ein...”

“Diejenige Regierung ist die beste, die sich überflüssing macht.”

“True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united.”

“Durch die gegenseitige Abhängigkeit des Gedankens, und des Wortes von einander leuchtet es klar ein, daß die Sprachen nicht eigentlich Mittel sind, die schonerkannte Welt darzustellen, sondern weit...”