Wilhelm Von Humboldt citáty
Wilhelm Von Humboldt
Datum narození: 22. červen 1767
Datum úmrtí: 8. duben 1835
Další jména: Вильгельм фон Гумбольдт
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt byl německý diplomat, filozof, zakladatel Humboldtovy univerzity v Berlíně, přítel Goetha a Schillera a v neposlední řadě významný německý jazykovědec, který evropským zájemcům přiblížil baskičtinu. Mezi jeho nejvýznamnější příspěvky jazykovědě a společenským vědám patří historicky první formulace myšlenek, jež později vešly ve známost jako teorie jazykového relativismu. Jejich základem je stanovisko, že lidé hovořící různými jazyky odlišně chápou svět kolem sebe. Původ jazyka objasňoval metafyzickými úvahami, jazyk je vrozená lidská vlastnost, vytváří duch národa a zrcadlí jeho mentalitu. Jazyk není produktem, ale aktivní silou. Pokoušel se vytvořit srovnávací antropologii jazyků, i proto se jako první z lingvistů zajímal i o živé jazyky. Snažil se klasifikovat jazyky podle jejich struktury, čímž se stal předchůdcem typologie.
Citáty Wilhelm Von Humboldt
„Co jest stát než souhrn lidských činných a trpných sil?“
Zdroj: [Koráb, Julius, Zlatá zrnka, [1885], Plzeň, V. Steinhauser, 239]
„Je to zvláštní věc v živobytí, když ani na štěstí ani na neštěstí nemyslíme, než jenom na přísné, sebe nešetřící konání povinností, že štěstí i při namáhavém a rozkoší se odříkajícím způsobě života samo sebou se dostaví.“
Zdroj: [Novák, Jan Václav, Vorovka, Karel, Kniha moudrosti, sborník aforismů a sentencí peadagogických, Bursík a Kohout, 1892, 17, česky]
„To inquire and to create;—these are the grand centres around which all human pursuits revolve,“
Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
Kontext: To inquire and to create;—these are the grand centres around which all human pursuits revolve, or at least to these objects do they all more or less directly refer.
„The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to elevate this power is the only way to counteract this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of that power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity.“
Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 16
Kontext: The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to elevate this power is the only way to counteract this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of that power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity. Only it is clear we cannot call it giving freedom, when fetters are unloosed which are not felt as such by him who wears them. But of no man on earth—however neglected by nature, and however degraded by circumstances—is this true of all the bonds which oppress and enthral him. Let us undo them one by one, as the feeling of freedom awakens in men’s hearts, and we shall hasten progress at every step. There may still be great difficulties in being able to recognize the symptoms of this awakening. But these do not lie in the theory so much as in its execution, which, it is evident, never admits of special rules, but in this case, as in every other, is the work of genius alone.
„The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument hitherto unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity“
Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 6
Kontext: The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument hitherto unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity; but national education, since at least it presupposes the selection and appointment of some one instructor, must always promote a definite form of development, however careful to avoid such an error. And hence it is attended with all those disadvantages which we before observed to flow from such a positive policy; and it only remains to be added, that every restriction becomes more directly fatal, when it operates on the moral part of our nature,—that if there is one thing more than another which absolutely requires free activity on the part of the individual, it is precisely education, whose object it is to develop the individual.
„If we would indicate an idea which, throughout the whole course of history, has ever more and more widely extended its empire, or which, more than any other, testifies to the much-contested and still more decidedly misunderstood perfectibility of the whole human race, it is that of establishing our common humanity — of striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of every kind have erected among men, and to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community, fitted for the attainment of one object, the unrestrained development of the physical powers.“
Kosmos (1847)
Kontext: If we would indicate an idea which, throughout the whole course of history, has ever more and more widely extended its empire, or which, more than any other, testifies to the much-contested and still more decidedly misunderstood perfectibility of the whole human race, it is that of establishing our common humanity — of striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of every kind have erected among men, and to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community, fitted for the attainment of one object, the unrestrained development of the physical powers. This is the ultimate and highest aim of society, identical with the direction implanted by nature in the mind of man toward the indefinite extension of his existence. He regards the earth in all its limits, and the heavens as far as his eye can scan their bright and starry depths, as inwardly his own, given to him as the objects of his contemplation, and as a field for the development of his energies. Even the child longs to pass the hills or the seas which inclose his narrow home; yet, when his eager steps have borne him beyond those limits, he pines, like the plant, for his native soil; and it is by this touching and beautiful attribute of man — this longing for that which is unknown, and this fond remembrance of that which is lost — that he is spared from an exclusive attachment to the present. Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recognition of the bond of humanity becomes one of the noblest leading principles in the history of mankind.
„There are undeniably certain kinds of knowledge that must be of a general nature and, more importantly, a certain cultivation of the mind and character that nobody can afford to be without.“
As quoted in Wilhelm von Humboldt (1970), by P. Berglar, p. 87, and "Profiles of Educators: Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835)" by Karl-Heinz Günther, in Prospects, Vol. 18, Issue 1 (March 1988)
Kontext: There are undeniably certain kinds of knowledge that must be of a general nature and, more importantly, a certain cultivation of the mind and character that nobody can afford to be without. People obviously cannot be good craftworkers, merchants, soldiers or businessmen unless, regardless of their occupation, they are good, upstanding and – according to their condition – well-informed human beings and citizens. If this basis is laid through schooling, vocational skills are easily acquired later on, and a person is always free to move from one occupation to another, as so often happens in life.
„It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue.“
Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
Kontext: Setting aside the fact that coercion and guidance can never succeed in producing virtue, they manifestly tend to weaken power; and what are tranquil order and outward morality without true moral strength and virtue? Moreover, however great an evil immorality may be, we must not forget that it is not without its beneficial consequences. It is only through extremes that men can arrive at the middle path of wisdom and virtue.
„Man is naturally more disposed to beneficent than selfish actions.“
Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
Kontext: Man is naturally more disposed to beneficent than selfish actions. This we learn even from the history of savages. The domestic virtues have something in them so inviting and genial, and the public virtues of the citizen something so grand and inspiring, that even he who is barely uncorrupted, is seldom able to resist their charm.
