Novalis Quotes
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, who published under the pen name Novalis, was a German poet, mystic, and philosopher of early Romanticism. Trained in law and mining engineering, he combined a professional life as a salt-mine inspector with an intense philosophical and literary engagement with Fichte, Spinoza, and the Bible. The quotes below are attributed to Novalis, organized by topic.
Browse Novalis by topic
Novalis on Death
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“Es giebt eine Reihe idealischer Begebenheiten, die der Wirklichkeit parallel läuft. Selten fallen sie zusammen. Menschen und Zufälle modificiren gewöhnlich die idealische Begebenheit, so dass sie unvollkommen erscheint, und ihre Folgen gleiche falls unvollkommen sind. So bei der Reformation; stat des Protestantismus kam das Lutherthum hervor.”
There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reformation; instead of Protestantism came Lutheranism. | Quoted as epigraph in Poe 's " The Mystery of Marie Rogêt " (1842). Adapted from Sarah Austin 's
Novalis on Knowledge
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“Unser Leben ist kein Traum, aber es soll und wird vielleicht einer werden.”
Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one. | Novalis Schriften , 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1805) vol. 2, Fragmente , I, p. 188. Translated in George MacDonald, Lilith (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co, 1895) ch. 47, p. 351 | Other translations: Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will. George MacDonald, Phantastes: A Faerie Romance (London: Daldy, Isbister, & Co, -
“There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reformation; instead of Protestantism came Lutheranism.”
Es giebt eine Reihe idealischer Begebenheiten, die der Wirklichkeit parallel läuft. Selten fallen sie zusammen. Menschen und Zufälle modificiren gewöhnlich die idealische Begebenheit, so dass sie unvollkommen erscheint, und ihre Folgen gleiche falls unvollkommen sind. So bei der Reformation; stat des Protestantismus kam das Lutherthum hervor. -
“Schicksal und Gemüt sind Namen eines Begriffs.”
Fate and temperament are the names of a concept. | Quoted in Hermann Hesse , Demian (1921) ch. 4. Translated by W. J. Strachan (1972). Translated by Michael Roloff and Michael Lebeck (1965): "Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept. -
“Fate and temperament are the names of a concept.”
Schicksal und Gemüt sind Namen eines Begriffs.
Novalis on Life
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“Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one.”
Unser Leben ist kein Traum, aber es soll und wird vielleicht einer werden.
Novalis on Mind
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Attributed to Novalis:
“Philosophy is properly homesickness, the wish to be everywhere at home.”
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Attributed to Novalis:
“Genius is the talent to take the contingent for the necessary.”
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“Inward goes the mysterious path; eternity, with its worlds, lies within us.”
Fragment No. 16 | Other translations: We dream of a journey through the universe. But is the universe then not in us? We do not know the depths of our spirit. Inward goes the secret path. Eternity with its worlds, the past and the future, is in us or nowhere. Frederick C. Beiser, " Bildung in Early German Romanticism", Amélie Rorty (ed.) Philosophers on Education: Historical Perspectives (1998) p.
Novalis on Nature
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Attributed to Novalis:
“The world must be romanticized.”
Novalis on Truth
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“We seek the absolute everywhere and only ever find things.”
Everywhere we seek the Absolute, and always we find only things.