Wilhelm von Humboldt

“It is usually more important how a man meets his fate than what it is.”

“If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we see at once that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions on the human mind.”

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

“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.”

“The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.”

“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.”

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

“War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.”

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

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

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

“Language makes infinite use of finite media.”

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

“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?”

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

“How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.”

“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.”

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.”