Johann Gottfried Herder Quotes

Should there not be manifest progress and development but in a higher sense than people have imagined it? ... No one is in his age alone, he builds on the preceding one, this becomes nothing but the foundation of the future, wants to be nothing but that — this is what we are told by the analogy in nature, God’s speaking exemplary model in all works! Manifestly so in the human species!

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.

Liberty, fraternity, and equality, as they are now sprouting up everywhere — they have brought about evil in a thousand abuses, and will continue to do so.

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

We see so much that we in fact see nothing, and we know so much that we no longer possess anything that is our own, that is to say, something we could not have learned, something that arises out of the virtues and errors of our own self.

პოლიტიკისათვის ადამიანი საშუალებაა, მორალისათვის კი _ მიზანი

Jak kwiaty zdobią ziemię a gwiazdy niebo, tak Grecja zdobi świat.

— “The system of trade!” The greatness and uniqueness of the project is obvious! Three continents devastated and regimented by us, and we depopulated by them, emasculated, sunk in luxury, exploitation, and death: what a rich and happy deal!
Who could do other than to claim his share in the great whirling cloud that is sucking the life out of Europe, than to press for his place within it and to deliver his own children, if not another man’s, to it as the greatest man of trade?
The old name, shepherd of the peoples, has been changed to monopolist, and when the great cloud will one day burst and unleash a hundred tempests, then help us the great god Mammon, whom we are all serving now!