Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldtwas a Prussian philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth22 June 1767
CountryRussian Federation
real character men
It is an absolutely vain endeavor to attempt to reconstruct or even comprehend the nature of a human being by simply knowing the forces which have acted upon him. However deeply we should like to penetrate, however close we seem to be drawing to truth, one unknown quantity eludes us: man's primordial energy, his original self, that personality which was given him with the gift of life itself. On it rests man's true freedom; it alone determines his real character.
spring energy results
Results are nothing; the energies which produce them and which again spring from them are everything.
men evil middle-path
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.
thinking ends results
Faith can be interested in results only, for a truth once recognized as such puts an end to the believer's thinking.
interesting situation extremes
All situations in which the interrelationships between extremes are involved are the most interesting and instructive.
life eye men
Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.
growing-up creative progress
One must not consider a language as a product dead, and formed but once; it is an animate being, and ever creative. Human thought elaborates itself with the progress of intelligence; and of this thought language is a manifestation. An idiom cannot therefore remain stationary; it walks, it develops, it grows up, it fortifies itself, it becomes old, and it reaches decrepitude.
death real sight
Death is but a word to us. One's own experience alone can teach us the real meaning of the word. The sight of the dying does little. What one sees of them is merely what precedes death: dull unconsciousness is all we see. Whether this be so,--how and when the spirit wakes to life again,--this is what all wish to know, and what never can be known until it is experienced.
mean sorrow plans
Even by means of our sorrows we belong to the eternal plan.
heart sorrow comfort
The sorrow which calls for help and comfort is not the greatest, nor does it come from the depths of the heart.
spiritual language nations
Language is the spiritual exhalation of the nation.
zenith development language
Samskrit is the unsurpassed zenith in the whole development of languages yet known to us.
beautiful children sleep
Even sleep is characteristic. How beautiful are children in their lovely innocence! how angel-like their blooming features! and how painful and anxious is the sleep of the guilty!
tasks impossible accomplish
All translating seems to me to be simply an attempt to accomplish an impossible task.