Alexander Von Humboldt Quotes

#1. I saw with regret, (and all scientific men have shared this feeling) that whilst the number of accurate instruments was daily increasing, we were still ignorant

Alexander Von Humboldt

#2. The philosophical study of nature endeavors, in the the vicissitudes of phenomena, to connect the present with the past.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#3. Collaboration operates through a process in which the successful intellectual achievements of one person arouse the intellectual passions and enthusiasms of others.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#4. Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#5. Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind

Alexander Von Humboldt

#6. People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once ... But can you really forbid a man from harbouring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?

Alexander Von Humboldt

#7. There are some races more cultured and advanced and ennobled by education than others; but there are no races nobler than others. All are equally destined for freedom.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#8. Insight into universal nature provides an intellectual delight and sense of freedom that no blows of fate and no evil can destroy.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#9. Statistical projections which speak to the senses without fatiguing the mind, possess the advantage of fixing the attention on a great number of important facts.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#10. This view of a living nature where man is nothing is both odd and sad. Here, in a fertile land, in an eternal greenness, you search in vain for traces of man; you feel you are carried into a different world from the one you were born into.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#11. The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those have not viewed the world.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#12. Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#13. Before being free, it is necessary to be just

Alexander Von Humboldt

#14. The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#15. The most dangerous worldviews are the worldviews of those who have never viewed the world.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#16. Mere communion with nature, mere contact with the free air, exercise a soothing yet comforting and strengthening influence on the wearied mind, calm the storm of passion, and soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#17. What we glean from travellers' vivid descriptions has a special charm; whatever is far off and suggestive excites our imagination; such pleasures tempt us far more than anything we may daily experience in the narrow circle of sedentary life.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#18. Petroleum is the product of a distillation from great depth and issues from the primitive rocks beneath which the forces of all volcanic action lie.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#19. This aspect of animated nature, in which man is nothing, has something in it strange and sad ... Here, in a fertile country, adorned with eternal verdure, we seek in vain the traces of the power of man; we seem to be transported into a world different from that which gave us birth.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#20. At no other time has Nature concentrated such a wealth of valuable nourishment into such a small space as in the cocoa bean.

Alexander Von Humboldt

#21. With most animals, as with man, the alertness of the senses diminishes after years of work, after domestic habits and progress of culture.

Alexander Von Humboldt