Johann Gottfried Herder Quotes

პოლიტიკისათვის ადამიანი საშუალებაა, მორალისათვის კი _ მიზანი

Wir leben immer in einer Welt, die wir uns selbst bilden.

Touch not the flute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent.

After the mother tongue follows French, for it is the most widely spoken and indispensable language of Europe; according to our present-day standards it is the most cultivated; fine style and the expressions of taste have been for the most part formed in this language and translated from it into others; it is the simplest and most uniform of languages from which to obtain a foretaste of philosophical grammar; it is the most suitable for the purposes of narrative, logic and reasoning. It must therefore, by the standards of our modern world, follow immediately after the mother tongue and precede every other, even Latin. I would like even the scholar to know French better than Latin!

[<nowiki/>India is the] lost paradise of all religions and philosophies," "the cradle of humanity," and also its "eternal home," and the great Orient "waiting to be discovered within ourselves."... "mankind's origins can be traced to India, where the human mind got the first shapes of wisdom and virtue with simplicity, strength and sublimity which has - frankly spoken - nothing, nothing at all equivalent in our philosophical, cold European world."... "O holy land (India), I salute thee, thou source of all music, thou voice of the heart' ... "Behold the East - cradle of the human race, of human emotion, of all religion."

In the forest of sensible objects that surrounds me, I find my way to becoming master of the chaos of the sensations assailing me only by separating objects from others, by giving them outline, dimensions, and form; in short, by creating unity in diversity and vividly and confidently designating these objects with the stamp of my inner sense, as if this were a seal of truth. Our whole life, then, is to a certain extent poetics: we do not see images but rather create them. The Divinity has sketched them for us on a great panel of light, from which we trace their outlines and paint the images in the soul using a finer brush than that of the rays of light. For the image that is projected on the retina of your eye is not the idea that you derive from its object; it is merely a product of your inner sense, a work of art created by your soul’s faculty of perception.

Air, fire, water and the earth evolve out of the spiritual and material staminibus in periodic cycles of time. Diverse connections of water, air, and light precede the emergence of the seed of the simplest plant, for instance moss. Many plants had to come into being, then die away before an animal emerged. Insects, birds, water animals, and night animals preceded the present animal forms; until finally the crown of earthly organization appeared—the human being, microcosm. He is the son of all the elements and beings, Nature’<nowiki/>s most carefully chosen conception and the blossom of creation. He must be the youngest child of Nature; many evolutions and revolutions must have preceded his formation.

Sag' o Weiser, wodurch du zu solchem Wissen gelangtest?
"Dadurch, daß ich mich nie andre zu fragen geschämt."

Die zwei größten Tyrannen der Erde, der Zufall und die Zeit.

Nicht um meine Sprache zu verlernen, lerne ich andere Sprachen, sondern ich gehe bloß durch fremde Gärten, um für meine Sprache Blumen zu holen.

As long as we keep our native language on our tongue, we will penetrate so much more deeply the distinctiveness of each language. Here we will find gaps, there superfluity; here riches, there a desert, and we will be able to enrich the poverty of the one with the treasures of the other. For, in what precise relationship do language and mentality stand? Whoever masters the entire scope of one language surveys a field full of thoughts, and whoever learns to express himself precisely in it thereby gathers for himself a treasure of clear concepts. The first words we stammer are the foundation stones of our knowing, and our nurse-maids are our first teachers of logic.

I am not here to think, but to be, feel, live!...Heart! Warmth! Blood! Humanity! Life!

კიდევ უფრო სავალალოდაა საქმე ქრისტიანულ საქართველოსთან დაკავშირებით. აქაა ეკლესიები და მონასტრები, პატრიარქები, ეპისკოპოსები და ბერები; ქალები ლამაზები არიან, მამაკაცები გულიანები; და მაინც, მშობლები შვილებს ჰყიდიან, ქმარი საკუთარ ცოლს, თავადი თავის ქვეშევრდომთ, ღვთისმოსავი კი სულაც საკუთარ მღვდელს. მეტად უცნაური ქრისტიანობაა გავრცელებული ამ ხალისიან და ორპირ ავაზაკთა ბრბოში

It can hardly be possible, that Nature should have given us a tongue, in order that the gratification of a few papillae on it should be the aim of a laborious life, or the cause of wretchedness to others.

"Tell me, O wise man, how hast thou come to know so astonishingly much?"
By never being ashamed to ask of those that knew!