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Apathy
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Wherever the citizen becomes indifferent to his fellows, so will the husband be to his wife, and the father of a family toward the members of his household.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Blasphemy
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We cannot assume the injustice of any actions which only create offense, and especially as regards religion and morals. He who utters or does anything to wound the conscience and moral sense of others, may indeed act immorally; but, so long as he is not guilty of being importunate, he violates no right.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Control
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If it were possible to make an accurate calculation of the evils which police regulations occasion, and of those which they prevent, the number of the former would, in all cases, exceed that of the latter.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Enjoyment
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True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Freedom
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Freedom is but the possibility of a various and indefinite activity; while government, or the exercise of dominion, is a single, yet real activity. The longing for freedom, therefore, is at first only too frequently suggested by the deep-felt consciousness of its absence.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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God
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Providence certainly does not favor just certain individuals, but the deep wisdom of its counsel, instruction and ennoblement extends to all.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Government
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The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Happiness
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I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Morals
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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.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Power
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Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Property
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Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with rest; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm us.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Revolution
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If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we see at once that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions of the human mind.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Spirituality
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The sensual and spiritual are linked together by a mysterious bond, sensed by our emotions, though hidden from our eyes. To this double nature of the visible and invisible world -- to the profound longing for the latter, coupled with the feeling of the sweet necessity for the former, we owe all sound and logical systems of philosophy, truly based on the immutable principles of our nature, just as from the same source arise the most senseless enthusiasms.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Success & Failure
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How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Tyranny
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Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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War
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War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Women
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If it were not somewhat fanciful to suppose that every human excellence is presented, as it were, in one kind of being, we might believe that the whole treasure of morality and order is enshrined in the female character.
-Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
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Books by and about Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt