Novalis Quotes

Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home.

~ Novalis

Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.

~ Novalis

Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.

~ Novalis

Life must not be a novel that is given to us, but one that is made by us.

~ Novalis

Humanity is a comic role.

~ Novalis

The artist stands on the human being as a statue does on a pedestal.

~ Novalis

Humanity is the higher meaning of our planet, the nerve that connects this part of it with the upper world, the eye it raises to heaven.

~ Novalis

How can a person have a sense of something if he does not have the germ of it within himself. What I am to understand must develop organically within me--and what I seem to learn is only nourishment--stimulation of the organism.

~ Novalis

Doing philosophy is only a threefold or double kind of waking--being awake--consciousness.

~ Novalis

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.

~ Novalis

Genius in general is poetic. Where genius has been active it has been poetically active. The truly moral person is a poet.

~ Novalis

Man has his being in truth--if he sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself. Whoever betrays truth betrays himself. It is not a question of lying--but of acting against one's conviction.

~ Novalis

Almost all genius up to now was one-sided—the result of a sickly constitution. One type had too much sense of the external, the other too much inner sense. Seldom could nature achieve a balance between the two—a complete constitution of genius. Often a perfect proportion arose by chance, but this could never endure because it was not comprehended and fixed by the spirit—they remained fortunate moments. The first genius that penetrated itself found here the exemplary germ of an immeasurable world. It made a discovery which must have been the most remarkable in the history of the world—for with it there begins a whole new epoch for humanity—and true history of all kinds becomes possible for the first time at this stage—for the way that had been traversed hitherto now makes up a proper whole that can be entirely elucidated. That point outside the world is given, and now Archimedes can fulfill his promise.

~ Novalis

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 recieved the most acclaim amongst his class. Thus Kant even now will find more followers than Fichte.

~ Novalis

Many books are longer than they seem. They have indeed no end. The boredom that they cause is truly absolute and infinite.

~ Novalis

Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history.

~ Novalis

Novels arise out of the shortcoings of history.

~ Novalis

Character is perfectly educated will.

~ Novalis

Not only England but every Englishman is an island.

~ Novalis

We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming.

~ Novalis

Nature is a petrified magic city.

~ Novalis

Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.

~ Novalis

Knowledge is only one half. Faith is the other.

~ Novalis

To become properly acquainted with a truth, we must first have disbelieved it, and disputed against it.

~ Novalis

The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist.

~ Novalis

Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life.

~ Novalis