Skip to content

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

— Alexander von Humboldt Equinoctial Regions of America (1814)

Another quote →

Topics

More quotes by Alexander von Humboldt

Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.

Seed-grain for Thought and Discussion (1856)

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

Equinoctial Regions of America (1814)

A physical delineation of nature terminates at the point where the sphere of intellect begins, and a new world of mind is opened to our view. It marks the limit, but does not pass it.

Kosmos (1845)

In order to ameliorate without commotion new institutions must be made, as it were, to rise out of those which the barbarism of centuries has consecrated.

Equinoctial Regions of America (1814)

I despise mankind in all its strata; I foresee that our descendants will be still far unhappier than we are. Would I not be a criminal if, notwithstanding this view, I should provide for progeny, i. e. for unfortunates?

All Alexander von Humboldt quotes →

You may also like

Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me.

L. Frank Baum Introduction to The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

There is an inverse relationship between imagination and money.

Alan Moore

An active imagination may find a bad tendency arising out of every transaction between imperfect morals.

Edward Hall Alderson Brownlow v. Egerton (1854)

Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers.

David Hume A Treatise of Human Nature (1739)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander von Humboldt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.