Novalis Quotes & Sayings

The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap. — Novalis

We are on a mission: we are called to the cultivation of the earth . — Novalis

Perceptibility is a kind of attentiveness. — Novalis

Not only England, but every Englishman is an island. — Novalis

The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up! — Novalis

The highest purpose of intellectual cultivation is to give a man a perfect knowledge and mastery of his own inner self. — Novalis

In most religious systems we are regarded as parts of the godhead which, if they do not obey the impulses of the whole, and even if they do not intentionally act against the laws of the whole, but only go their own way and do not want to be parts of it, are medically treated by the godhead - and either endure a painful cure or even are cut off. — Novalis

There is but one temple in the world, and that is the body of man. Nothing is holier than this high form. Bending before men is a reverence done to this revelation in the flesh. We touch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body. — Novalis

I often feel, and ever more deeply I realize, that fate and character are the same conception. — Novalis

Nature is an aeolian harp, a musical instrument whose tones are the re-echo of higher strings within us. — Novalis

The world must become romanticized, and in that way we find again its original meaning for us. — Novalis

Friends , the soil is poor, we must sow seeds in plenty for us to garner even modest harvests . — Novalis

Tools arm the man. One can well say that man is capable of bringing forth a world; he lacks only the necessary apparatus, the corresponding armature of his sensory tools. The beginning is there. Thus the principle of a warship lies in the idea of the shipbuilder, who is able to incorporate this thought by making himself into a gigantic machine, as it were, through a mass of men and appropriate tools and materials. Thus the idea of a moment often required monstrous organs, monstrous masses of materials, and man is therefore a potential, if not an actual creator. — Novalis

Philosophy is properly home-sickness; the wish to be everywhere at home. — Novalis

Before abstraction everything is one, but one like chaos; after abstraction everything is united again, but this union is a free binding of autonomous, self-determined beings. Out of a mob a society has developed, chaos has been transformed into a manifold world. — Novalis

But even more heavenly than the flashing
stars are those infinite eyes which the night opens within us, and which see further even than the palest of those
innumerable hosts. — Novalis

Life is the beginning of death. Life is for the sake of death. Death is at once the end and the beginning - at once separation and closer union of the self. Through death the reduction is complete — Novalis

Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates
hence the deadly frost
the free power of the mind
the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more
the person is alone, like a baleful power
as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually
and in accordance with his own principle he is
misanthropic and misotheos. — Novalis

Aside I turn to the holy, unspeakable, mysterious Night. Afar lies the world
sunk in a deep grave
waste and lonely is its place. In the chords of the bosom blows a deep sadness. I am ready to sink away in drops of dew, and mingle with the ashes.
The distances of memory, the wishes of youth, the dreams of childhood, the brief joys and vain hopes of a whole long life, arise in gray garments, like an evening vapor after the sunset. In other regions the light has pitched its joyous tents. What if it should never return to its children, who wait for it with the faith of innocence? — Novalis

Building worlds is not enough for the deeper urging mind; but a loving heart sates the striving spirit. — Novalis

Almost all genius up to now was one-sided - the result of a sickly constitution. One type had too much sense of the external, the other too much inner sense. Seldom could nature achieve a balance between the two - a complete constitution of genius. Often a perfect proportion arose by chance, but this could never endure because it was not comprehended and fixed by the spirit - they remained fortunate moments. The first genius that penetrated itself found here the exemplary germ of an immeasurable world. It made a discovery which must have been the most remarkable in the history of the world - for with it there begins a whole new epoch for humanity - and true history of all kinds becomes possible for the first time at this stage - for the way that had been traversed hitherto now makes up a proper whole that can be entirely elucidated. That point outside the world is given, and now Archimedes can fulfill his promise. — Novalis

The most intimate community of all knowledge - the republic of learning is the high purpose of scholars. — Novalis

We are more closely connected to the invisible than to the visible. — Novalis

Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history. — Novalis

The fate which oppresses us is the inertia of our spirit. Through extending and cultivating our activity we shall transform ourselves into fate.
Everything seems to stream inward into us, because we do not stream outward. We are negative because we want to be - the more positive we become, the more negative will the world around us become - until at last there will be no more negation - but instead we are all in all.
God wants there to be gods. — Novalis

I show that I have understood a writer only when I can act in his spirit, when, without constricting his individuality, I can translate him and change him in diverse ways. — Novalis

Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us ... The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with "I am." The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I. — Novalis

The artist stands on the human being as a statue does on a pedestal. — Novalis

Oh draw at my heart, love,
Draw till I'm gone,
That, fallen asleep, I
Still may love on.
I feel the flow of
Death's youth-giving flood
To balsam and ether
Transform my blood
I live all the daytime
In faith and in might
And in holy fire
I die every night. — Novalis

What is nature? An encyclopedic systematic index or plan of our spirit. Why should we be content with the mere catalogue of our treasures - let us examine them for ourselves - and work with them and use them in diverse ways. — Novalis

All the chance events of our lives are materials from which we can make what we like. Whoever is rich in spirit makes much of his life. Every acquaintance, every incident would be for the thoroughly spiritual person - the first element in an endless series - the beginning of an endless novel. — Novalis

Life must not be a novel that is given to us, but one that is made by us. — Novalis

Man is lyrical, woman epic, marriage dramatic. — Novalis

mad, were not my perception and reasonings so clear; and this state of mind appears to have brought with it superior knowledge on all subjects. — Novalis

All the events of our life are materials of which we can make what we will. — Novalis

One should, when overwhelmed by the shadow of a giant, move aside and see if the colossal shadow isn't merely that of a pygmy blocking out the sun. — Novalis

True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the annihilation of all existing institutions she raises her glorious head, as the new foundress of the world. — Novalis

Many things are too delicate to be thought; many more, to be spoken. — Novalis

The ideal of morality has no more dangerous rival than the ideal of highest strength, of most powerful life. It is the maximum of the savage. — Novalis

Play is experimenting with chance. — Novalis

Is not our body in itself nothing but a common central effect of our senses - if we have mastery over our senses - if we are able to transform them into activity at will - to center them at a common point, then it only depends on us - to give ourselves the body we want.
Indeed, in our senses are nothing other than modifications of the mental organ - of the absolute element - then with mastery over this element we shall also be able to modify and direct our senses as we please. — Novalis

If the world is a precipitation of human nature, so to speak, then the divine world is a sublimation of the same. Both occur in one act. No precipitation without sublimation. What goes lost there in agility, is won here. — Novalis

Darwin remarks that we are less dazzled by the light at waking, if we have been dreaming of visible objects. Happy are those who have here dreamt of a higher vision! They will the sooner be able to endure the glories of the world to come. — Novalis

Philosophy ... bears witness to the deepest love of reflection, to absolute delight in wisdom. — Novalis

Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home. — Novalis

Longing for Death
Down into the womb of the earth,
Out of the kingdom of light,
Anger, pain, and a savage blow
Signal the happy departure. — Novalis

We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming. — Novalis

One makes a great error if one believes there are 'ancients.' Only now is antiquity starting to arise. It arises in the eyes and soul of the artist. — Novalis

Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy. To pray is to make religion. — Novalis

Philosophy is really homesickness: the urge to be at home everywhere. — Novalis

What delights, what pleasures does your life offer you that outweigh the raptures of death? — Novalis

Sacrifice of the self is the source of all humiliation, as also on the contrary is the foundation of all true exaltation. The first step will be an inward gaze - an isolating contemplation of ourselves. Whoever stops here has come only halfway. The second step must be an active outward gaze - autonomous, constant observation of the external world.
No one will ever achieve excellence as an artist who cannot depict anything other than his own experiences, his favorite objects, who cannot bring himself to study assiduously even a quite strange object, which does not interest him at all, and to depict it at leisure. An artist must be able and willing to depict everything. This is how a great artistic style is created, which rightly is so much admired in Goethe. — Novalis

The normal present connects the past and the future through limitation. Contiguity results, crystallization by means of solidification. There also exists, however, a spiritual present that identifies past and future through dissolution, and this mixture is the element, the atmosphere of the poet. — Novalis

Humanity is a comic role. — Novalis

Knowledge is only one half. Faith is the other. — Novalis

Only as far as a man is happily married to himself is he fit for married life and family life in general. — Novalis

Every disease is a musical problem. Its cure a musical solution. The more rapid and complete the solution, the greater the musical talent of the doctor. — Novalis

Man is a sun, his senses are the planets. — Novalis

Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life. — Novalis

Blood will stream over Europe until the nations become aware of the frightful madness which drives them in circles. And then, struck by celestial music and made gentle, they approach their former altars all together, hear about the works of peace, and hold a great celebration of peace with fervent tears before the smoking altars. — Novalis

There is but one temple in the universe, and that is the body of man. — Novalis

Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment. — Novalis

Nature is a petrified magic city. — Novalis

Everywhere we seek the Absolute, and always we find only things. — Novalis

Everything is seed. — Novalis

To philosophize means to make vivid. — Novalis

The imagination places the world of the future either far above us, or far below, or in a relation of metempsychosis to ourselves. We dream of traveling through the universe - but is not the universe within ourselves? The depths of our spirit are unknown to us - the mysterious way leads inwards. Eternity with its worlds - the past and future - is in ourselves or nowhere. The external world is the world of shadows - it throws its shadow into the realm of light. At present this realm certainly seems to us so dark inside, lonely, shapeless. But how entirely different it will seem to us - when this gloom is past, and the body of shadows has moved away. We will experience greater enjoyment than ever, for our spirit has been deprived. — Novalis

Only the most perfect human being can design the most perfect philosophy. — Novalis

A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. — Novalis

To know a truth well, one must have fought it out. — Novalis

That which the external world perceives as quite motionless has the appearance of being quite at rest. However much it may change, in relation to the external world it always stays at rest. This principle governs all self-modifications. That is why the beautiful appears so much at rest. Everything beautiful is a self-illuminated, perfect individual. — Novalis

The mysterious path goes inward. It is in us, and not anywhere else, where the eternity of the worlds, the past and the future are found. — Novalis

We are close to waking when we dream that we are dreaming. — Novalis

Denotation by means of sounds and markings is a remarkable abstraction. Three letters designate God for me; several lines a million things. How easy becomes the manipulation of the universe here, how evident the concentration of the intellectual world! Language is the dynamics of the spiritual realm. One word of command moves armies; the word liberty entire nations. — Novalis

Holy sleep, do not so seldom bring happiness to the night's beloved in this earthly labour of the day. — Novalis

A complete need should not exist ... love, life in common with loved ones? — Novalis

Character is a wish for a perfect education. — Novalis

The Bible begins gloriously with Paradise, the symbol of youth, and ends with the everlasting kingdom, with the holy city. The history of every man should be a Bible. — Novalis

Mathematics is the Life of the Gods. — Novalis

The brains -the thinking organs- are the world producers -nature's genitals. — Novalis

It is certain my belief gains quite infinitely the very moment I can convince another mind thereof — Novalis

You are alone with everything you love. — Novalis

Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one. — Novalis

Fate and temperament are the names of a concept. — Novalis

It is not merely the multiplicity of tints, the gladness of tone, or the balminess of the air which delight in the spring; it is the still consecrated spirit of hope, the prophecy of happy days yet to come; the endless variety of nature, with presentiments of eternal flowers which never shall fade, and sympathy with the blessedness of the ever-developing world. — Novalis

In the earliest times of the discovery of the faculty of judgment, every new judgment was a find. The worth of this find rose, the more practical and fertile the judgment was. Verdicts which now seem to us very common then still demanded an unusual level of intellectual life. One had to bring genius and acuity together in order to find new relations using the new tool. Its application to the most characteristic, interesting, and general aspects of humanity necessarily aroused exceptional admiration and drew the attention of all good minds to itself. In this way those bodies of proverbial sayings came into being that have been valued so highly at all times and among all peoples. It would easily be possible for the discoveries of genius we make today to meet with a similar fate in the course of time. There could easily come a time when all that would be as common as moral precepts are now, and new, more sublime discoveries would occupy the restless spirit of men. — Novalis

The true Poet is all-knowing; he is an actual world in miniature. — Novalis

The world must be romanticized. Only in that way will one rediscover its original senses. Romanticization is nothing less than a qualitative raising of the power of a thing ... I romanticize something when I give the commonplace a higher meaning, the known the dignity of the unknown, and the finite the appearance of the infinite. — Novalis

I was still blind , but twinkling stars did dance Throughout my being's limitless expanse, Nothing had yet drawn close, only at distant stages I found myself, a mere suggestion sensed in past and future ages. — Novalis

Flight from the communal spirit is death! — Novalis

Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. — Novalis

Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God , Freedom , Immortality. Which, then, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy ? — Novalis

The world must be romanticized. In this way the originary meaning may be found again. — Novalis

Accident is simply unforeseen order. — Novalis

A character is a completely fashioned will. — Novalis

The poem of the understanding is philosophy. — Novalis

There is an energy which springs from sickness and debility: it has a more powerful effect than the real, but, sadly, expires in an even greater infirmity. — Novalis

Genius in general is poetic. Where genius has been active it has been poetically active. The truly moral person is a poet. — Novalis

The individual soul should seek for an intimate union with the soul of the universe. — Novalis

Most observers of the French Revolution, especially the clever and noble ones, have explained it as a life-threatening and contagious illness. They have remained standing with the symptoms and have interpreted these in manifold and contrary ways. Some have regarded it as a merely local ill. The most ingenious opponents have pressed for castration. They well noticed that this alleged illness is nothing other than the crisis of beginning puberty. — Novalis