A collection of quotes by Novalis on philosophy, poetry, healing, nostalgia, life, love, romance, artist, pain, inspiration, genius, morality and humanity.
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, popularly known by his pen name Novalis, was a German philosopher, author, poet and mystic. He rose to prominence in the 18th century and is regarded as the most important figure in Early German Romanticism. Novalis was born in an aristocratic family, studied law and then went on to study geology at the Mining Academy of Freiburg. Although he had been trained in geology and law, he made his name as an author and philosopher. He maintained note books and wrote several philosophical books during his life, which came to be broadly associated with Early German Romanticism. Some of his noted works include ‘The Birth of Novalis’, ‘Hymns to the Nights’, ‘Classic and Romantic German Aesthetics’, ‘Fichte Studies’, ‘Novalis: Notes for Romantic Encyclopaedia’, ‘Novalis: Philosophical Writings’ and ‘The Novices of Sais’ etc. Many of Novalis’ work have been translated into English by scholars from all across the world and his works are housed in some of the leading libraries. Here is a collection of quotes and thoughts that have been extracted from the vast sea of writings, novels, books and poems by Novalis. Go through the profound sayings, thoughts and quotes from Novalis’s work and life.
One can not understand language because language cannot understand itself; does not want to understand
- Novalis
Philosophy is really homesickness: the urge to be at home everywhere.
- 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: Philosophical Writings, Novalis
Play is experimenting with chance.
- Novalis
Genius in general is poetic. Where genius has been active it has been poetically active. The truly moral person is a poet.
- Novalis
Every individual is the center of a system of emanation.
- Novalis: Philosophical Writings, Novalis
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.
- Novalis
Perceptibility is a kind of attentiveness.
- Novalis
But even more heavenly than the flashing
stars are those infinite eyes which the night opens within us, and which see further even than the palest of those
innumerable hosts.
- Hymns to the Night, Novalis
Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört, der weiß wie Wolken schmecken.
- 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
And now I awaken, for I am both yours and mine.
- Hymns to the Night, Novalis
Longing for Death
Down into the womb of the earth,
Out of the kingdom of light,
Anger, pain, and a savage blow
Signal the happy departure.
- Hymns to the Night, Novalis
Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history.
- Fragmente und Studien. Die Christenheit oder Europa, Novalis
Whoever sees life other than as a self-destroying illusion is himself still preoccupied with life.
Life must not be a novel that is given to us, but one that is made by us.
Light had its allotted time; but timeless and infinite is the reign of the night − the duration of sleep eternal.
- Hymns to the Night, Novalis
I show that I have understood a writer only when I can act in his spirit, when, without constricting his individuality, I can translate him and change him in diverse ways.
- Novalis: Philosophical Writings, Novalis
Our body is a moulded river
- Novalis
Life is the beginning of death. Life is for the sake of death. Death is at once the end and the beginning—at once separation and closer union of the self. Through death the reduction is complete
The most intimate community of all knowledge—the republic of learning is the high purpose of scholars.
- Novalis: Philosophical Writings, Novalis
Many books are longer than they seem. They have indeed no end. The boredom that they cause is truly absolute and infinite.
- Novalis: Philosophical Writings, Novalis
Apparently, we go forward.
- Pollen and Fragments: Selected Poetry and Prose, Novalis
I live all the daytime
In faith and in might
And in holy fire
I die every night.
- Novalis
One makes a great error if one believes there are 'ancients.' Only now is antiquity starting to arise. It arises in the eyes and soul of the artist.
- Novalis
Holy sleep, do not so seldom bring happiness to the night’s beloved in this earthly labour of the day.
- Hymns to the Night, Novalis
True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the annihilation of all existing institutions she raises her glorious head, as the new foundress of the world.
- Novalis
Flight from the communal spirit is death!
- Novalis
Doing philosophy is only a threefold or double kind of waking--being awake--consciousness.
- Novalis
Toda enfermedad puede llamarse enfermedad del alma.
- Novalis
Novels arise out of the shortcoings of history.
- Fragmente und Studien. Die Christenheit oder Europa, Novalis
The greatest of sorcerers would be the one who would cast a spell on himself to the degree of taking his own phantasmagoria for autonomous apparitions. Might that not be our case?
- Novalis
The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap.
