Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.
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We build on the ice, and write on the waves of the sea. — The waves roaring, pass away; the ice melts, and away goes our palace, like our thoughts.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Friendship with the evil is like the shadow in the morning, decreasing every hour; but friendship with the good is like the evening shadows, increasing till the sun of life sets.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Friendship
Brave is the lion tamer, brave is the world subduer, but braver is the one who has subdued himself.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Discipline
Touch not the flute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Silence
What of us lies in the hearts of others is our truest and deepest self.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
The working of revolutions misleads me no more; it is as necessary to our race as its waves to the stream, that it may not be a stagnant marsh. Ever renewed in its forms, the genius of humanity blossoms.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Revolution
Whoever perseveres will be crowned.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Perseverance
Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Say oh wise man how you have come to such knowledge? Because I was never ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Knowledge
It is a hard but good law of fate, that as every evil, so every excessive power wears itself out.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Those that embrace the entire universe with love, for the most part love nothing, but their narrow selves.
—Johann Gottfried Herder
Topics: Love
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