Alexander Humboldt Quotes & Sayings

While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others - but none in themselves nobler than others. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Mere communion with nature, mere contact with the free air, exercise a soothing yet comforting and strengthening influence on the wearied mind, calm the storm of passion, and soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths. — Alexander Von Humboldt

This man [Alexander von Humboldt] is as knowledgeable as a whole academy. — Claude Louis Berthollet

People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once ... But can you really forbid a man from harbouring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him? — Alexander Von Humboldt

But when on shore, & wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand - If it is to be done, it must be by studying Humboldt. — Charles Darwin

There are some races more cultured and advanced and ennobled by education than others; but there are no races nobler than others. All are equally destined for freedom. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Petroleum is the product of a distillation from great depth and issues from the primitive rocks beneath which the forces of all volcanic action lie. — Alexander Von Humboldt

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

{Letter to celebrated scientist Alexander von Humboldt, 6 December, 1813} — Thomas Jefferson

During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose. — Hermann Von Helmholtz

I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met. — Thomas Jefferson

This view of a living nature where man is nothing is both odd and sad. Here, in a fertile land, in an eternal greenness, you search in vain for traces of man; you feel you are carried into a different world from the one you were born into. — Alexander Von Humboldt

I could not possibly have been placed in circumstances more highly favorable for study and exploration than those which I now enjoy. I am free from the distractions constantly arising in civilized life from social claims. Nature offers unceasingly the most novel and fascinating objects for learning. The only drawbacks to this solitude are the want of information on the progress of scientific discovery in Europe and the lack of all the advantages arising from an interchange of ideas. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind — Alexander Von Humboldt

The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness. — Alexander Von Humboldt

The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible. — Alain De Botton

It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man by his folly or wisdom prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view it in another light, namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to the dispositions of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever may be its privations. — Alexander Von Humboldt

With most animals, as with man, the alertness of the senses diminishes after years of work, after domestic habits and progress of culture. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Collaboration operates through a process in which the successful intellectual achievements of one person arouse the intellectual passions and enthusiasms of others. — Alexander Von Humboldt

I saw with regret, (and all scientific men have shared this feeling) that whilst the number of accurate instruments was daily increasing, we were still ignorant — Alexander Von Humboldt

In considering the study of physical phenomena, not merely in its bearings on the material wants of life, but in its general influence on the intellectual advancement of mankind, we find its noblest and most important result to be a knowledge of the chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked together, and made mutually dependent upon each other; and it is the perception of these relations that exalts our views and ennobles our enjoyments. — Alexander Von Humboldt

This aspect of animated nature, in which man is nothing, has something in it strange and sad ... Here, in a fertile country, adorned with eternal verdure, we seek in vain the traces of the power of man; we seem to be transported into a world different from that which gave us birth. — Alexander Von Humboldt

The most powerful influence exercised by the Arabs on general natural physics was that directed to the advances of chemistry ; a science for which this race created a new era.( ... ) Besides making laudatory mention of that which we owe to the natural science of the Arabs in both the terrestrial and celestial spheres, we must likewise allude to their contributions in separate paths of intellectual development to the general mass of mathematical science. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Columbus gave Europe a New World; [Alexander von] Humboldt made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects. — Jose Cipriano De La Luz Y Caballero

Humboldt's early biographer, F.A. Schwarzenberg, subtitled his life of Humboldt What May Be Accomplished in a Lifetime. He summarised the areas of his subject's extraordinary curiosity as follows: '1) The knowledge of the Earth and its inhabitants. 2) The discovery of the higher laws of nature, which govern the universe, men, animals, plants, minerals. 3) The discovery of new forms of life. 4) The discovery of territories hitherto but imperfectly known, and their various productions. 5)
The acquaintance with new species of the human race
their manners, their language and the historical traces of their culture.'
What may be accomplished in a lifetime
and seldom or never is. — Alain De Botton

Time is the most important thing in human life, for what is pleasure after the departure of time? and the most consolatory, since pain, when pain has passed, is nothing. Time is the wheel-track in which we roll on towards eternity, conducting us to the Incomprehensible. In its progress there is a ripening power, and it ripens us the more, and the more powerfully, when we duly estimate it. Listen to its voice, do not waste it, but regard it as the highest finite good, in which all finite things are resolved. — Alexander Von Humboldt

[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived. — Charles Darwin

Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt, yet another friend, may have had Agassiz at least partly in mind when he observed that there are three stages in scientific discovery: first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person. At — Bill Bryson

He [Alexander von Humboldt] was to science what Shakespeare was to the drama. — Robert G. Ingersoll

What we glean from travellers' vivid descriptions has a special charm; whatever is far off and suggestive excites our imagination; such pleasures tempt us far more than anything we may daily experience in the narrow circle of sedentary life. — Alexander Von Humboldt

The most dangerous worldviews are the worldviews of those who have never viewed the world. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Before being free, it is necessary to be just — Alexander Von Humboldt

The philosophical study of nature endeavors, in the the vicissitudes of phenomena, to connect the present with the past. — Alexander Von Humboldt

The real discoverer of South America was [Alexander von] Humboldt, since his work was more useful for our people than the work of all conquerors. — Simon Bolivar

Statistical projections which speak to the senses without fatiguing the mind, possess the advantage of fixing the attention on a great number of important facts. — Alexander Von Humboldt

Every scientist is a descendant of Humboldt. We are all his family. — Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond

Alexander von Humboldt's wide-ranging Views of Nature is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century natural history, at once science and art. Mark W. Person's stunning new translation makes the wonders of this classic accessible to the English-language world of the present. — Daniel Walker Howe

Insight into universal nature provides an intellectual delight and sense of freedom that no blows of fate and no evil can destroy. — Alexander Von Humboldt

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those have not viewed the world. — Alexander Von Humboldt

[Alexander von] Humboldt showers us with true treasures. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I came to Berlin not to visit its museums and galleries, its operas, its theaters ... but for the sake of seeing and speaking with the world's greatest living man - Alexander von Humboldt. — Bayard Taylor

At no other time has Nature concentrated such a wealth of valuable nourishment into such a small space as in the cocoa bean. — Alexander Von Humboldt