Great Throughts Treasury

"The highest problem of literature is the writing of a Bible."

"The highest purpose of intellectual cultivation is to give a man a perfect knowledge and mastery of his own inner self; to render our consciousness its own light and its own mirror."

"The highest task of education is?to take command of one?s transcendental self?to be at once the I of its I. It is all the less to be wondered at that we lack complete insight and understanding for others. Without perfect self-understanding one will never learn to truly understand others."

"The history of every individual man should be a Bible."

"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."

"The letter is only an aid to philosophical communication, the actual essence of which consists in arousing a particular train of thought. Someone speaking thinks and produces?someone listening reflects?and reproduces. Words are a deceptive medium for what is already though?unreliable vehicles of a particular, specific stimulus. The true teacher is a guide. If the pupil genuinely desires truth it requires only a hint to show him how to find what he is seeking. Accordingly the representation of philosophy consists purely of themes?of initial propositions?principles. It exists only for autonomous lovers of truth. The analytical exposition of the theme is only for those who are sluggish or unpracticed. The latter must learn thereby how to fly and keep themselves moving in a particular direction. Attentiveness is a centripetal force. The effective relation between that which is directed and the object of direction begins with the given direction. If we hold fast to this direction we are apodictically certain of reaching the goal that has been set. True collaboration in philosophy then is a common movement toward a beloved world?whereby we relieve each other in the most advanced outpost, a movement that demands the greatest effort against the resisting element within which we are flying."

"The more sinful a man feels himself, the more Christian he is."

"The more poetic, the more real. This is the core of my philosophy."

"The more narrow-minded a system is the more it will please worldly-wise people. Thus the system of the materialists, the doctrine of Helvetius and also Locke has received the most acclaim amongst his class. Thus Kant even now will find more followers than Fichte."

"The process of history is combustion."

"The Pupil. ? Men travel in manifold paths: whoso traces and compares these, will find strange Figures come to light; Figures which seem as if they belonged to that great Cipher-writing which one meets with everywhere, on wings of birds, shells of eggs, in clouds, in the snow, in crystals, in forms of rocks, in freezing waters, in the interior and exterior of mountains, of plants, animals, men, in the lights of the sky, in plates of glass and pitch when touched and struck on, in the filings round the magnet, and the singular conjunctures of Chance. In such Figures one anticipates the key to that wondrous Writing, the grammar of it; but this Anticipation will not fix itself into shape, and appears as if, after all, it would not become such a key for us. An Alcahest seems poured out over the senses of men. Only for a moment will their wishes, their thoughts thicken into form. Thus do their Anticipations arise; but after short whiles, all is again swimming vaguely before them, even as it did."

"The pure mathematics is religion."

"The spirit of Poesy is the morning light, which makes the Statue of Memnon sound."

"The true philosophical Act is annihilation of self (Selbsttodtung); this is the real beginning of all Philosophy; all requisites for being a Disciple of Philosophy point hither. This Act alone corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of transcendental conduct."

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

"The Muses (daughters of Memory) refresh us in our toilsome course with sweet remembrances."

"The poem of the understanding is philosophy."

"The old world began to decline. The pleasure-garden of the young race withered away -- up into more open, desolate regions, forsaking his childhood, struggled the growing man. The gods vanished with their retinue -- Nature stood alone and lifeless. Dry Number and rigid Measure bound it with iron chains. Into dust and air the priceless blossoms of life fell away in words obscure. Gone was wonder-working Faith, and its all-transforming, all-uniting angel-comrade, the Imagination. A cold north wind blew unkindly over the rigid plain, and the rigid wonderland first froze, then evaporated into ether. The far depths of heaven filled with glowing worlds. Into the deeper sanctuary, into the more exalted region of feeling, the soul of the world retired with all its earthly powers, there to rule until the dawn should break of universal Glory. No longer was the Light the abode of the gods, and the heavenly token of their presence -- they drew over themselves the veil of the Night. The Night became the mighty womb of revelations -- into it the gods went back -- and fell asleep, to go abroad in new and more glorious shapes over the transfigured world. Among the people who too early were become of all the most scornful and insolently estranged from the blessed innocence of youth, appeared the New World with a face never seen before -- in the poverty of a poetic shelter -- a son of the first virgin and mother -- the eternal fruit of mysterious embrace. The foreboding, rich-blossoming wisdom of the East at once recognized the beginning of the new age -- A star showed the way to the humble cradle of the king. In the name of the distant future, they did him homage with lustre and fragrance, the highest wonders of Nature. In solitude the heavenly heart unfolded to a flower-chalice of almighty love -- upturned toward the supreme face of the father, and resting on the bliss-foreboding bosom of the sweetly solemn mother. With deifying fervor the prophetic eye of the blooming child beheld the years to come, foresaw, untroubled over the earthly lot of his own days, the beloved offspring of his divine stem. Ere long the most childlike souls, by true love marvellously possessed, gathered about him. Like flowers sprang up a strange new life in his presence. Words inexhaustible and the most joyful tidings fell like sparks of a divine spirit from his friendly lips. From a far shore, born under the clear sky of Hellas, came a singer to Palestine, and gave up his whole heart to the wonder-child."

"The most intimate community of all knowledge?the republic of learning is the high purpose of scholars."

"The true reader must be an extension of the author. He is the higher court that receives the case already prepared by the lower court. The feeling by means of which the author has separated out the materials of his work, during reading separates out again the unformed and the formed aspects of the book?and if the reader were to work through the book according to his own idea, a second reader would refine it still more, with the result that, since the mass that had been worked through would constantly be poured into fresh vessels, the mass would finally become an essential component?a part of the active spirit. Through impartial rereading of his book the author can refine his book himself. With strangers the particular character is usually lost, because the talent of fully entering into another person?s idea is so rare. Often even in the author himself. It is not a sign of superior education and greater powers to justifiably find fault with a book. When receiving new impressions, greater sharpness of mind is quite natural."

"The waking man looks without fear at this offspring of his lawless Imagination; for he knows that they are but vain Spectres of his weakness. He feels himself lord of the world: his me hovers victorious over the Abyss; and will through Eternities hover aloft above that endless Vicissitude. Harmony is what his spirit strives to promulgate, to extend. He will even to infinitude grow more and more harmonious with himself and with his Creation; and at every step behold the all-efficiency of a high moral Order in the Universe, and what is purest of his Me come forth into brighter and brighter clearness. This significance of the World is Reason; for her sake is the World here; and when it is grown to be the arena of a childlike, expanding Reason, it will one day become the divine Image of her Activity, the scene of a genuine Church. Till then let man honour Nature as the Emblem of his own Spirit; the Emblem ennobling itself, along with him, to unlimited degrees. Let him, therefore, who would arrive at knowledge of Nature, train his moral sense, let him act and conceive in accordance with the noble Essence of his Soul; and as if of herself Nature will become open to him. MoralAction is that great and only Experiment, in which all riddles of the most manifold appearances explain themselves. Whoso understands it, and in rigid sequence of Thought can lay it open, is forever master of Nature."

"The world away - a deep-cut tomb, location, and lonely as a desert. A deep sadness of the chest breeze rising from the wires. With dew drops on down t want to be involved in and ash. -Memories of the distance, the desires of youth, childhood dreams, all the fleeting joys and vain hopes of a life, then wrap-around sun like fog in the evening, with the clothes on their backs come primarily gray. Elsewhere in the light, joyous tents have been set up. Or children who are waiting in the belief of her innocence ever again does not return?"

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

"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."

"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."

"There is, properly speaking, no misfortune in the world. Happiness and misfortune stand in continual balance. Every misfortune is, as it were, the obstruction of a stream, which, after overcoming this obstruction, but bursts forth with the greater force."

"The world state is the body, which is ? animated by the world of beauty, the world of sociability. It is the necessary instrument of this world."

"There is but one temple in the Universe and that is the Body of Man."

"To determine the self must be compared to its thing. Correlation is through differences - both using the thesis of absolute sphere of existence. This is the bare existence or chaos. If you would also have a higher sphere, it would be the area between being and nothingness, lingering between the two - something unspeakable; and here we have precisely the concept of life. Life cannot be anything else. Man dies matter remains, intermediate unit, if I may say so, between matter and destruction is not, the matter becomes indeterminable, usurped everything he can. Philosophy is stopped and must stop; because life consists precisely in the fact that cannot be understood. Every philosophy can cover only existence. One feels the border that surrounds all about it and himself - this is the first action; he must believe in it as surely knows anything. Therefore here we're not transcendent, and I are one and the self. To understand yourself, the self you imagine another, equally with himself as if to anatomize. That other, uniform nature to him is nothing but myself. He perceived this act of alienation and hence production also only through this mental preparation, discovers that he himself should be the same to him that the action does not take place in any other manner that precede this reflection ... Natural movement of reflection on the result and the result for reflection - as a result of the outcome. Life is something made ??up of synthesis, thesis and antithesis, and yet none of the three. Follow all those antitheses and syntheses should have the contents of the thesis and the shape of the first synthesis and antithesis. Therefore existence must be the nature of all these, and division and correlation - the nature of all antitheses and syntheses. Is not any philosophy only available for use or for reflection? Therefore it must be dogmatic and seem transcendent. What we mean by I? Is not it too randomly put Fichte everything in the Self? On what grounds? Could I be a fix as I have no other I or not-I? (How I and not-I have effects?) Self has hieroglyphic ability. It has to be some not-self to the self can be defined as self. (Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.) Act by which the self is defined as I should be associated with the antithesis of an independent not-self and attitude toward a sphere surrounding them: this field can be called God or Self."

"To get to know a truth properly, one must polemicize it."

"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."

"To what extent can one have a sense for something if he doesn't have its embryo inside him? Whatever I come to understand must itself develop organically in myself, and what I seem to learn is only nourishment and cultivation of that inner organism."

"To philosophize means to make vivid."

"We are more closely connected to the invisible than to the visible."

"We are close to waking when we dream that we are dreaming."

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

"We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming."

"We dream of journeys through the cosmos ? Is the cosmos not then in us? We do not know the depths of our own spirit. ? The mysterious path leads within. In us, or nowhere, is eternity with its worlds ? the past and the future."

"We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend."

"We should be proud of the pain, any pain is a reminder of our elevation."

"We seek the absolute everywhere and only ever find things."

"What has passed with him since then he does not disclose to us. He tells us that we ourselves, led on by him and our own desire, will discover what has passed with him. Many of us have withdrawn from him. They returned to their parents, and learned trades. Some have been sent out by him, we know not whither; he selected them. Of these, some have been but a short time there, others longer. One was still a child; scarcely was he come, when our Teacher was for passing him any more instruction. This child had large dark eyes with azure ground, his skin shone like lilies, and his locks like light little clouds when it is growing evening. His voice pierced through all our hearts; willingly would we have given him our flowers, stones, pens, all we had. He smiled with an infinite earnestness; and we had a strange delight beside him. One day he will come again, said our Teacher, and then our lessons end. ? Along with him he sent one, for whom we had often been sorry. Always sad he looked; he had been long years here; nothing would succeed with him; when we sought crystals or flowers, he seldom found. He saw dimly at a distance; to lay down variegated rows skilfully he had no power. He was so apt to break everything. Yet none had such eagerness, such pleasure in hearing and listening. At last, ? it was before that Child came into our circle, ? he all at once grew cheerful and expert. One day he had gone out sad; he did not return, and the night came on. We were very anxious for him; suddenly, as the morning dawned, we heard his voice in a neighbouring grove. He was singing a high, joyful song; we were all surprised; the Teacher looked to the East, such a look as I shall never see in him again. The singer soon came forth to us, and brought, with unspeakable blessedness on his face, a simple-looking little stone, of singular shape. The Teacher took it in his hand, and kissed him long; then looked at us with wet eyes, and laid this little stone on an empty space, which lay in the midst of other stones, just where, like radii, many rows of them met together."

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

"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."

"What is it that wells up so suddenly and menacingly under my heart, swallowing the soft air of melancholy? Are you pleased with us, dark night? What is it you conceal under your mantle, that grabs invisibly and powerfully at my soul? A rich balm drips off your fingers from a bundle of poppies. You raise up the heavy wings of the soul ? darkly and inexpressibly we are moved. I see an earnest face startled with joy ? softly and reverently it inclines toward me, and under endlessly entangled locks"

"When we speak of the aim and Art observable in Shakespeare's works, we must not forget that Art belongs to Nature; that it is, so to speak, self-viewing, self-imitating, self-fashioning Nature. The Art of a well-developed genius is far different from the Artfulness of the Understanding, of the merely reasoning mind. Shakespeare was no calculator, no learned thinker; he was a mighty, many-gifted soul, whose feelings and works, like products of Nature, bear the stamp of the same spirit; and in which the last and deepest of observers will still find new harmonies with the infinite structure of the Universe; concurrences with later ideas, affinities with the higher powers and senses of man. They are emblematic, have many meanings, are simple and inexhaustible, like products of Nature; and nothing more unsuitable could be said of them than that they are works of Art, in that narrow mechanical acceptation of the word."

"When one begins to reflect on philosophy?then philosophy seems to us to be everything, like God, and love. It is a mystical, highly potent, penetrating idea?which ceaselessly drives us inward in all directions. The decision to do philosophy?to seek philosophy is the act of self-liberation?the thrust toward ourselves."

"What springs up all at once so sweetly boding in my heart, and stills the soft air of sadness? Dost thou also take a pleasure in us, dark Night? What holdest thou under thy mantle, that with hidden power affects my soul? Precious balm drips from thy hand out of its bundle of poppies. Thou upliftest the heavy-laden wings of the soul. Darkly and inexpressibly are we moved -- joy-startled, I see a grave face that, tender and worshipful, inclines toward me, and, amid manifold entangled locks, reveals the youthful loveliness of the Mother. How poor and childish a thing seems to me now the Light -- how joyous and welcome the departure of the day -- because the Night turns away from thee thy servants, you now strew in the gulfs of space those flashing globes, to proclaim thy omnipotence -- thy return -- in seasons of thy absence. More heavenly than those glittering stars we hold the eternal eyes which the Night hath opened within us. Farther they see than the palest of those countless hosts -- needing no aid from the light, they penetrate the depths of a loving soul -- that fills a loftier region with bliss ineffable. Glory to the queen of the world, to the great prophet of the holier worlds, to the guardian of blissful love -- she sends thee to me -- thou tenderly beloved -- the gracious sun of the Night, -- now am I awake -- for now am I thine and mine -- thou hast made me know the Night -- made of me a man -- consume with spirit-fire my body, that I, turned to finer air, may mingle more closely with thee, and then our bridal night endure forever."

"Where are we really going? Always home."

"Where no gods are, spectres rule."