Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes

Russia, Philosopher
June 22, 1767 – April, 8, 1835.

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949, and also after his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist.

Also known as Linguist, Diplomat, Founder

Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation's culture as its language.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
The more a man acts on his own, the more he develops himself. In large associations he is too prone to become merely an instrument.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Instrument
- Acts
- Develops

Every man, however good he may be, has a yet better man dwelling in him, which is properly himself, but to whom nevertheless he is often unfaithful. It is to this interior and less mutable being that we should attach ourselves, not to be changeable, every-day man.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
Besides the pleasure derived from acquired knowledge, there lurks in the mind of man, and tinged with a shade of sadness, an unsatisfactory longing for something beyond the present, a striving towards regions yet unknown and unopened.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
To inquire and to create; these are the grand centres around which all human pursuits revolve, or at least to these objects do they all more or less directly refer.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Create
- Objects
- Least
Whatever does not spring from a man's free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but still remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Nature
- Choice
- Remains
Language makes infinite use of finite media.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Language
- Media
- Infinite
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.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Nature
- Events
- Depends

Language is the spiritual exhalation of the nation.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
How a person masters his or her fate is more important than what that fate is.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
- Important
- Person
- Fate