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Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Herder

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Herder

A fool always accuses other people; a partially wise man himself; a wholly wise man, neither himself nor others.

An nichts Geliebtes muszt du dein Gemüt / Also verpfänden, dass dich sein Verlust / Untröstbar machte—Never so set your heart on what you love that its loss may render you inconsolable.

Arbeit ist des Blutes Balsam: / Arbeit ist der Tugend Quell—Labour is balm to the blood: labour is the source of virtue.

As every great evil, so every excessive power wears itself out at last.

Culture of the thinking, the dispositions (Gesinnungen), and the morals is the only education that deserves the name, not mere instruction.

Eher schätzet man das Gute / Nicht, als bis man es verlor—We do not learn to value our blessings till we have lost them.

Eine schöne Menschenseele finden / Ist Gewinn—It is a true gain to find a beautiful human soul.

Gesetzlose Gewalt ist die furchbarste Schwache—Lawless power is the most frightful weakness.

God is great in what is the greatest and the smallest.

He who serves under reason anticipates necessity.

Im Mangel, nicht im Ueberfluss / Keimt der Genuss—Enjoyment germinates not in abundance but in want.

Individually man is a weak being, but strong in union with others.

Jedes Weibes / Fehler ist des Mannes Schuld—The husband is to blame for the fault of the wife (in every case).

Lass dich nicht verblüffen—Don’t let yourself be disconcerted.

Ohne Begeisterung schlafen die besten Kräfte des Gemüths. Es ist ein Zunder in uns, der Funken will—Without inspiration the best powers of the mind are dormant. There is a tinder in us which needs to be quickened with sparks.

Rühre die Laute nicht, wenn ringums Trommeln erschallen; / Führen Narren das Wort, schweiget der Weisere still—Touch not the lute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent.

Religion is the highest humanity (Humanität) of man.

Say, O wise man, how thou hast come by such knowledge? Because I never was ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others.

Suche die Wissenschaft als würdest ewig du hier sein, / Tugend, als hielte der Tod dich schon am sträubenden Haar—Seek knowledge, as if thou wert to be here for ever; virtue, as if death already held thee by the bristling hair.

The training (Bildung) of the thinking, of the dispositions and the morals, is the only education that deserves the name.

They who embrace the entire universe with love, for the most part love nothing but their narrow selves.

Was in dem Herzen Anderer von uns lebt, / Ist unser wahrestes und tiefstes Selbst—What of us lives in the heart of others is our truest and deepest self.

Whoever perseveres will be crowned.

Wie die Blumen die Erd’, und die Sterne den Himmel / Zieren, so zieret Athen Hellas und Hellas die Welt—As the flowers adorn the earth and the stars the sky, so Athens adorns Greece, and Greece the world.