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.
Browse Johann Gottfried Herder by topic
Johann Gottfried Herder on Death
-
“Wir leben immer in einer Welt, die wir uns selbst bilden.”
We live in a world we ourselves create. | Übers Erkennen und Empfinden in der menschlichen Seele (1774); cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877-1913) vol. 8, p. 252. Translation from Roy Pascal The German Sturm und Drang (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959) p. 136 -
“Am sorgfältigsten, mein Freund, meiden Sie die Autorschaft darüber. Zu früh oder unmäßig gebraucht, macht sie den Kopf wüste und das Herz leer, wenn sie auch sonst keine üblen Folgen gäbe. Ein Mensch, der die Bibel nur lieset, um sie zu erläutern, lieset sie wahrscheinlich übel, und wer jeden Gedanken, der ihm aufstößt, durch Feder und Presse versendet, hat sie in kurzer Zeit alle versandt, und wird bald ein blosser Diener der Druckerey, ein Buchstabensetzer werden.”
With the greatest possible solicitude avoid authorship. Too early or immoderately employed, it makes the head waste and the heart empty; even were there no other worse consequences. A person, who reads only to print, to all probability reads amiss ; and he, who sends away through the pen and the press every thought, the moment it occurs to him, will in a short time have sent all away, and will bec -
“Die zwei größten Tyrannen der Erde, der Zufall und die Zeit.”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91) | The two grand tyrants of the Earth, Time and Chance . Vol. 1, p. x; translation vol. 1, p. xi -
“Jeder liebt sein Land, seine Sitten, seine Sprache, sein Weib, seine Kinder, nicht weil sie die besten auf der Welt, sondern weil sie die bewährten Seinigen sind, und er in ihnen sich und seine Mühe selbst liebt.”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91) | Every one loves his country, his manners, his language , his wife, his children; not because they are the best in the World, but because they are absolutely his own, and he loves himself and his own l -
“Der Appetit nach einer schönen Frucht ist angenehmer als die Frucht selbst.”
The craving for a delicate fruit is pleasanter than the fruit itself. Christoph Martin Wieland (ed.) Der deutsche Merkur vol. 20 (1781) p. 214; cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin Weidmann, 1888) vol. 15, p. 30
Johann Gottfried Herder on God
-
“in Suzanne L. Marchand - German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, Race, and Scholarship-Cambridge University Press (2009)”
In his later work, in particular, he voices considerable animus against British colonization in India; in his 1803 preface to a new edition of Forster’s Sakuntala, he says that “English rhyme schemes suit Indian poetry as searing-hot water acts on the sweet blooms of the Mallika, which singe and destroy them (as the English do the Hindus themselves),” and deplores the fact that “‘this cultural and
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.”
-
“Nowhere on earth does the rose of happiness blossom without thorns; but what bursts forth out of these thorns is everywhere and in various guises the transient, yet beautiful rose of man’s joy in living .”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91) | Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind , Bk. 8, Ch. 5; as quoted in Johann Gottfried Herder : Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings (2004), edited and translated by
Johann Gottfried Herder on Knowledge
-
“Übers Erkennen und Empfinden in der menschlichen Seele (1774); cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877-1913) vol. 8, p. 252. Translation from Roy Pascal The German Sturm und Drang (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959) p. 136”
Wir leben immer in einer Welt, die wir uns selbst bilden. -
“For every ancient nation likes to consider itself the firstborn and to take its territory for humanity’s birthplace.”
quoted in Maurice Olender - Languages of Paradise -
“Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betressend (1780-81), Vierundzwanzigster Brief; cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877-1913) vol. 10, p. 260. Translation from Samuel Taylor Coleridge Biographia Literaria (London: Rest Fenner, 1817) vol. 1, ch. 11, pp. 233-34”
Am sorgfältigsten, mein Freund, meiden Sie die Autorschaft darüber. Zu früh oder unmäßig gebraucht, macht sie den Kopf wüste und das Herz leer, wenn sie auch sonst keine üblen Folgen gäbe. Ein Mensch, der die Bibel nur lieset, um sie zu erläutern, lieset sie wahrscheinlich übel, und wer jeden Gedanken, der ihm aufstößt, durch Feder und Presse versendet, hat sie in kurzer Zeit alle versandt, und wi -
“"Tell me, O wise man, how hast thou come to know so astonishingly much?" By never being ashamed to ask of those that knew!”
Wikiquote
Johann Gottfried Herder on Life
-
“Whate'er of us lives in the hearts of others Is our truest and profoundest self.”
Wikiquote
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.”
-
“Every one loves his country, his manners, his language , his wife, his children; not because they are the best in the World, but because they are absolutely his own, and he loves himself and his own labours in them.”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91) -
“Variant translation: Everyone loves his own country, customs, language, wife, children, not because they are the best in the world, but because they are his established property, and he loves in them himself, and the labor he has bestowed on them.”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91)
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.”
-
“We live in a world we ourselves create.”
Wir leben immer in einer Welt, die wir uns selbst bilden. -
“…nothing in Nature stands still; everything strives and moves forward. If we could only view the first stages of creation, how the kingdoms of nature were built one upon the other, a progression of forward-striving forces would reveal itself in all evolution.”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91) | Book 5, as cited in Frank Teichmann (tr. Jon McAlice), "The Emergence of the Idea of Evolution in the Time of Goethe" -
“The two grand tyrants of the Earth, Time and Chance .”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91)
Johann Gottfried Herder on Politics
-
Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“A poet is the creator of the nation around him.”
-
“Calmly take what ill betideth; Patience wins the crown at length : Rich repayment him abideth Who endures in quiet strength. Brave the tamer of the lion; Brave whom conquered kingdoms praise; Bravest he who rules his passions, Who his own impatience sways.”
"Die wiedergefundenen Söhne" [The Recovered Sons] (1801) as translated in The Monthly Religious Magazine Vol. 10 (1853) p. 445
Johann Gottfried Herder on Time
-
“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 !”
This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity" [" Auch eine Philosophie zur Geschichte der Menscheit "] (1774), as translated by Michael N. Forster, in Johann Gottlieb von Herder: Philosophical Writings (2002), edited by Michael N. Forster, p. 299 -
“This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity" [" Auch eine Philosophie zur Geschichte der Menscheit "] (1774), as translated by Michael N. Forster, in Johann Gottlieb von Herder: Philosophical Writings (2002), edited by Michael N. Forster, p. 299”
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 ! -
“With the greatest possible solicitude avoid authorship. Too early or immoderately employed, it makes the head waste and the heart empty; even were there no other worse consequences. A person, who reads only to print, to all probability reads amiss ; and he, who sends away through the pen and the press every thought, the moment it occurs to him, will in a short time have sent all away, and will become a mere journeyman of the printing-office, a compositor .”
Am sorgfältigsten, mein Freund, meiden Sie die Autorschaft darüber. Zu früh oder unmäßig gebraucht, macht sie den Kopf wüste und das Herz leer, wenn sie auch sonst keine üblen Folgen gäbe. Ein Mensch, der die Bibel nur lieset, um sie zu erläutern, lieset sie wahrscheinlich übel, und wer jeden Gedanken, der ihm aufstößt, durch Feder und Presse versendet, hat sie in kurzer Zeit alle versandt, und wi -
“Herder, quoted in Poliakov, L. (1974). The Aryan myth : a history of racist and nationalist ideas in Europe p 186”
Wikiquote -
“Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind , Bk. 8, Ch. 5; as quoted in Johann Gottfried Herder : Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings (2004), edited and translated by Ioannis D. Evrigenis and Daniel Pellerin, p. v”
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man(1784-91)