Johann Gottfried Herder Quotes
Johann Gottfried Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, and literary critic and a central figure of the Sturm und Drang movement and the broader counter-Enlightenment. A student of Kant and a friend of Goethe, he argued against the universalism of the French Enlightenment that human reason is always embedded in a particular language, history, and Volk. The quotes below are attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder, organized by topic.
Johann Gottfried Herder on Happiness
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Each nation has its own inner center of happiness, just as every sphere has its own center of gravity.”
Johann Gottfried Herder on Love
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“The savage who loves himself, his wife, and his child with quiet joy is a more genuine being than the cultivated shadow who is enraptured with the love of the shadows of his whole species.”
Johann Gottfried Herder on Mind
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Without language we have no reason, no reason without language.”
Johann Gottfried Herder on Nature
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to listen to them can learn the truth.”
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“We live in a world we ourselves create.”
Johann Gottfried Herder on Politics
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“A poet is the creator of the nation around him.”