553
Everything that we call Invention or Discovery in the higher sense of the word is the serious exercise and activity of an original feeling for truth, which, after a long course of silent cultivation, suddenly flashes out into fruitful knowledge. It is a revelation working from within on the outer world, and lets a man feel that he is made in the image of God. It is a synthesis of World and Mind, giving the most blessed assurance of the eternal harmony of things.
554
A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.
555
There are pedants who are also rascals, and they are the worst of all.
556
A man does not need to have seen or experienced everything himself. But if he is to commit himself to another's experiences and his way of putting them, let him consider that he has to do with three things—the object in question and two subjects.
557
The supreme achievement would be to see that stating a fact is starting a theory.
558
If I acquiesce at last in some ultimate fact of nature, it is, no doubt, only resignation; but it makes a great difference whether the resignation takes place at the limits of human faculty, or within the hypothetical boundaries of my own narrow individuality.
559
If we look at the problems raised by Aristotle, we are astonished at his gift of observation. What wonderful eyes the Greeks had for many things! Only they committed the mistake of being over-hasty, of passing straightway from the phenomenon to the explanation of it, and thereby produced certain theories that are quite inadequate. But this is the mistake of all times, and still made in our own day.
560
Hypotheses are cradle-songs by which the teacher lulls his scholars to sleep. The thoughtful and honest observer is always learning more and more of his limitations; he sees that the further knowledge spreads, the more numerous are the problems that make their appearance.
561
Our mistake is that we doubt what is certain and want to establish what is uncertain. My maxim in the study of Nature is this: hold fast what is certain and keep a watch on what is uncertain.
562
What a master a man would be in his own subject if he taught nothing useless!
563
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.
564
If many a man did not feel obliged to repeat what is untrue, because he has said it once, the world would have been quite different.
565
Every man looks at the world lying ready before him, ordered and fashioned into a complete whole, as after all but an element out of which his endeavour is to create a special world suited to himself. Capable men lay hold of the world without hesitation and try to shape their course as best they can; others dally over it, and some doubt even of their own existence.
The man who felt the full force of this fundamental truth would dispute with no one, but look upon another's mode of thought equally with his own, as merely a phenomenon. For we find almost daily that one man can think with ease what another cannot possibly think at all; and that, too, not in matters which might have some sort of effect upon their common weal or woe, but in things which cannot touch them at all.
566
There is nothing more odious than the majority; it consists of a few powerful men to lead the way; of accommodating rascals and submissive weaklings; and of a mass of men who trot after them, without in the least knowing their own mind.
567
When I observe the luminous progress and expansion of natural science in modern times, I seem to myself like a traveller going eastwards at dawn, and gazing at the growing light with joy, but also with impatience; looking forward with longing to the advent of the full and final light, but, nevertheless, having to turn away his eyes when the sun appeared, unable to bear the splendour he had awaited with so much desire.
568
We praise the eighteenth century for concerning itself chiefly with analysis. The task remaining to the nineteenth is to discover the false syntheses which prevail, and to analyse their contents anew.
569
A school may be regarded as a single individual who talks to himself for a hundred years, and takes an extraordinary pleasure in his own being, however foolish and silly it may be.
570
In science it is a service of the highest merit to seek out those fragmentary truths attained by the ancients, and to develop them further.
571
If a man devotes himself to the promotion of science, he is firstly opposed, and then he is informed that his ground is already occupied. At first men will allow no value to what we tell them, and then they behave as if they knew it all themselves.
572
Nature fills all space with her limitless productivity. If we observe merely our own earth, everything that we call evil and unfortunate is so because Nature cannot provide room for everything that comes into existence, and still less endow it with permanence.
573
Everything that comes into being seeks room for itself and desires duration: hence it drives something else from its place and shortens its duration.
574
There is so much of cryptogamy in phanerogamy that centuries will not decipher it.
575
What a true saying it is that he who wants to deceive mankind must before all things make absurdity plausible.
576
The further knowledge advances, the nearer we come to the unfathomable: the more we know how to use our knowledge, the better we see that the unfathomable is of no practical use.
577
The finest achievement for a man of thought is to have fathomed what may be fathomed, and quietly to revere the unfathomable.
578
The discerning man who acknowledges his limitations is not far off perfection.
579
There are two things of which a man cannot be careful enough: of obstinacy if he confines himself to his own line of thought; of incompetency, if he goes beyond it.
580
Incompetency is a greater obstacle to perfection than one would think.
581
The century advances; but every individual begins anew.
582
What friends do with us and for us is a real part of our life; for it strengthens and advances our personality. The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.
583
A man cannot live with every one, and therefore he cannot live for every one. To see this truth aright is to place a high value upon one's friends, and not to hate or persecute one's enemies. Nay, there is hardly any greater advantage for a man to gain than to find out, if he can, the merits of his opponents: it gives him a decided ascendency over them.
584
Every one knows how to value what he has attained in life; most of all the man who thinks and reflects in his old age. He has a comfortable feeling that it is something of which no one can rob him.
585
The best metempsychosis is for us to appear again in others.
586
It is very seldom that we satisfy ourselves; all the more consoling is it to have satisfied others.
587
We look back upon our life only as on a thing of broken pieces, because our misses and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have done, and attained.
588
The sympathetic youth sees nothing of this; he reads, enjoys, and uses the youth of one who has gone before him, and rejoices in it with all his heart, as though he had once been what he now is.
589
Science helps us before all things in this, that it somewhat lightens the feeling of wonder with which Nature fills us; then, however, as life becomes more and more complex, it creates new facilities for the avoidance of what would do us harm and the promotion of what will do us good.
590
It is always our eyes alone, our way of looking at things. Nature alone knows what she means now, and what she had meant in the past.
Nature! We are surrounded by her and locked in her clasp: powerless to leave her, and powerless to come closer to her. Unasked and unwarned she takes us up into the whirl of her dance, and hurries on with us till we are weary and fall from her arms.
She creates new forms without end: what exists now, never was before; what was, comes not again; all is new and yet always the old.
We live in the midst of her and are strangers. She speaks to us unceasingly and betrays not her secret. We are always influencing her and yet can do her no violence.
Individuality seems to be all her aim, and she cares nought for individuals. She is always building and always destroying, and her workshop is not to be approached.
Nature lives in her children only, and the mother, where is she? She is the sole artist,—out of the simplest materials the greatest diversity; attaining, with no trace of effort, the finest perfection, the closest precision, always softly veiled. Each of her works has an essence of its own; every shape that she takes is in idea utterly isolated; and yet all forms one.
She plays a drama; whether she sees it herself, we know not; and yet she plays it for us, who stand but a little way off.
There is constant life in her, motion and development; and yet she remains where she was. She is eternally changing, nor for a moment does she stand still. Of rest she knows nothing, and to all stagnation she has affixed her curse. She is steadfast; her step is measured, her exceptions rare, her laws immutable.
She has thought, and she ponders unceasingly; not as a man, but as Nature. The meaning of the whole she keeps to herself, and no one can learn it of her.
Men are all in her, and she in all men. With all she plays a friendly game, and rejoices the more a man wins from her. With many her game is so secret, that she brings it to an end before they are aware of it.
Even what is most unnatural is Nature; even the coarsest Philistinism has something of her genius. Who does not see her everywhere, sees her nowhere aright.
She loves herself, and clings eternally to herself with eyes and hearts innumerable. She has divided herself that she may be her own delight. She is ever making new creatures spring up to delight in her, and imparts herself insatiably.
She rejoices in illusion. If a man destroys this in himself and others, she punishes him like the hardest tyrant. If he follows her in confidence, she presses him to her heart as it were her child.
Her children are numberless. To no one of them is she altogether niggardly; but she has her favourites, on whom she lavishes much, and for whom she makes many a sacrifice. Over the great she has spread the shield of her protection.
She spurts forth her creatures out of nothing, and tells them not whence they come and whither they go. They have only to go their way: she knows the path.
Her springs of action are few, but they never wear out: they are always working, always manifold.
The drama she plays is always new, because she is always bringing new spectators. Life is her fairest invention, and Death is her device for having life in abundance.
She envelops man in darkness, and urges him constantly to the light. She makes him dependent on the earth, heavy and sluggish, and always rouses him up afresh.
She creates wants, because she loves movement. How marvellous that she gains it all so easily! Every want is a benefit, soon satisfied, soon growing again. If she gives more, it is a new source of desire; but the balance quickly rights itself.
Every moment she starts on the longest journeys, and every moment reaches her goal.
She amuses herself with a vain show; but to us her play is all-important.
She lets every child work at her, every fool judge of her, and thousands pass her by and see nothing; and she has her joy in them all, and in them all finds her account.
Man obeys her laws even in opposing them: he works with her even when he wants to work against her.
Everything she gives is found to be good, for first of all she makes it indispensable. She lingers, that we may long for presence; she hurries by, that we may not grow weary of her.
Speech or language she has none; but she creates tongues and hearts through which she feels and speaks.
Her crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.
She is all things. She rewards herself and punishes herself; and in herself rejoices and is distressed. She is rough and gentle, loving and terrible, powerless and almighty. In her everything is always present. Past or Future she knows not. The Present is her Eternity. She is kind. I praise her with all her works. She is wise and still. No one can force her to explain herself, or frighten her into a gift that she does not give willingly. She is crafty, but for a good end; and it is best not to notice her cunning.
She is whole and yet never finished. As she works now, so can she work for ever.
To every one she appears in a form of his own. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.
She has placed me in this world; she will also lead me out of it. I trust myself to her. She may do with me as she pleases. She will not hate her work. I did not speak of her. No! what is true and what is false, she has spoken it all. Everything is her fault, everything is her merit.
Absent, the,47.Absolute, the,238.Abstractions, how destroyed,203.Absurdities,229,575.Acquaintances, new,432.Acquirements,344.Acting unlike oneself,298.Activity,342,368,372,401.Æschylus, saying of,121.Age,391.Age and Youth,37,233-4,237,295,321,374.Ages of life,390.Agreement and disagreement,384.Aims,278,342,500.Altruism,167,214,583.Analogies,46,523.Analysis,568.Ancient literature,447.Ancients, the,443,445,570.Anthropomorphism,165.Antiquities,325.Antiquity and posterity,190.Architecture, a speechless music,493.Aristotle,559.Art,492,494,499,508.Art and Nature,482-3,490-1,509,512.Art and the World,485-6.Artist, the,495-8.Artistic criticism,116.Assemblies,281.Attainable, the,48.Attainments,584,587.Authority,534-7.Authorship,418.Ballads,477-8.Beauty,136,232,481.Bible, the,457-9.Books,417,420,432,456.Cause and effect,394.Century, the, and the individual,581.Character,367.Characteristics,7,29,74,91,110,179,291,297,311,344.Children,245-7.Christ,314.Classicism,462-3.Clever folly,175.Common-sense,49,217.Complications,45.Confession of error,529.Confidences,142.Conscience,125.Conscience and intellect,530.Contemporaries,386,454.Contradictions,87,102,223,288-9,378,382.Converts,170.Criticism,146,182,304,456.Critique of common-sense,393.Critique of the senses,514.Cryptogamy,574.Culture,328-9,412.Dangerous men,275-6.Debtor and creditor,282-3.Deception,320,400.Defects,89.Despotism, advantages of,209.Dialectic,379.Difficulties,277-8,330,398.Dilettanti,159.Discovery,397,553.Dispositions, like and unlike,380.Distinctions,166.Doggerel,506.Doing good,98.Dürer, Albrecht,502-3.Duties and rights,150.Duty,3,38,402.Eclecticism,436-7.Education,444.Education, overpressure in,371.Eighteenth century,568.Emboîtement, theory of,550.Empirical morality,140.Encyclopædia, the best,161.Enemies,582.Enemies' merits,387,583.Enthusiasm,211,471.Erasmus, saying of,63.Error and half-truth,59,61,72,564.Errors of the age,521.Excellence unfathomable,406.Existence of evil,572-3.Experience,43,556.Facts and theories,557.Facts and thoughts,188.Facts newly stated,526.Faith,117.False notions,5,200.False tendencies,64.Familiarity,262.Fashion,392.Fastidiousness,260.Faults,296-7,299,304-5.Favour,83.Fear,275.Figurative sayings:a leaf and a bird,359.an old man warming himself,363.blowing the flute,16.buttoning one's coat,362.curds and cream,58.dirt and the sun,99.dust and the storm,66.frogs and water,71.heroes and valets,272.Hindoos of the desert,106.hitting the nail,78.lamps and the light of heaven,361.lifting the stone,208.mankind and the Red Sea,187.names for the sea,95.snow,92.the Antipodes, disputing about,90.the forester and the tree,358.the iron in the smithy,310.the millstream,42.the rainbow,115.the sparrow and the stork,360.the world a bell,158.turnips and chestnuts,507.Flattery,145,287,289.Fools,271,276.Forethought,103.Form, the human,513.Freedom and slavery,268-9.Friends' defects,387.Friendship,248,582.Fulfilment of desire,228,267.Fulfilment of duty,38.Future, the,280.General ideas,15,177.Generosity,65.Genius,232,273,336-9,425.Gentle judgments,124.German art,501.Germans, the,326.God,307,353.Godlike, the,308.Good advice,206.Good manners,254-7,263-5.Good will of others,34.Government, the best,225.Graceful misery,126.Gratitude,283.Great ideas,239,349,350-2.Great men,274.Great men and little men,69,119,271.Great men and the masses,147.Greek and Latin, study of,444,446.Greek and Latin writers,469.Greek art,484.Greeks, the,189,443,559.Habit,129.Hatred and envy,130.Hearing and understanding,383.High positions,335.Historian's duty, the,452-3,455.Historic sense,460.History,80,451.History of knowledge,55.Honour and rascality,144.Hope,194,280,315.Hypotheses,560.Ideals,141,348.Ideas and sensations,93.Ignorance,231.Illusions,186.Imagination, how regulated,489.Imprudence,50,105.Incompetence and imperfection,17,18.Incompetency,579-80.Individuals and the age,201,581.Influencing one's age,365.Ingratitude,152.Inquiry, limits of,327,554,558,576-7.Insight,370.Intelligence,322.Intention,334.Interest in public events,331.Introspection,75.Investigator, the true,543-4.Irregular circumstances,143.Isolation of the good,224.Italian art,505.Judgment,85-6.Justice and law,54.Kepler, saying of,354.Knowledge,235,324,370,525-6,538.Knowledge and doubt,178.Knowledge and new ideas,82.Knowledge, branches of,539.Knowledge of one another,67-70,251-3.Knowledge, the contempt for,113.Language and thought,317,407.Languages, knowledge of,414.Laws,321.Laws, study of,168.Leasing, saying of,52.Lessons,139.Liberal ideas,174,375.Liberality, the truest,385.Life, the art of,101,192,282,584.Limitations,578.Literature a fragment,404-5.Literature, corrupt,465-7.Literature, new,409.Love,195,270.Love of truth,28.Loving one's like,180.Lucidity,413.Lyrics,421.Majorities,544-6,566.Malignance of scholars,135.Man and his organs,347.Masters,94,310.Mastery,204.Matter, contents and form,183.Maxims and anecdotes,156.Maxims of the ancients,438-42.Means and end,11.Mediocrity,221,273.Memoirs,149.Memory,157.Men and women,226,295.Metaphysics,551.Metempsychosis, the best,585.Method in art and knowledge,112.Mischief,160.Misfortunes,227.Mistakes,13,40,153,162,210,218,285-6,524,561.Misunderstanding,122.Moment, the, a kind of public,369.Monarchs and the press,375.Moods,100.Morality,319.Motive,10.Mottoes,207.Music,488.Mysteries and miracles,169.Mysticism,430.Napoleon,240-1.National character,73,374,429.Nature,572,590.Nature and art,482-3,490-1,509,512.Nature and culture,284,477.Nature-poets,419.Nature, study of,561.Newspapers,23,375,461.Obscurantism,88.Obscurity in an author,431.Observation and conclusion,517,559.Obstinacy,579.Opinions,107,552.Opponents,381-2.Opposition,88.Originality,1,134,409-11,536-7.Origins,550.Ovid,463.Parties,516.Passions,300-3.Past, the,138.Patience,357.Patriotism in art and science,448.Patrons,133.Paying for one's humanity,173.Peace,53.Pedantry,132,535,555.Pereant qui ante nos nostra dizerunt!333.Perfection,343,578,580.Perseverance,193,537.Perversities of the day,244.Pessimism,181,184.Phenomena, how to approach,399.Philosophy and the ages of life,390.Piety,35-6.Plain speaking,172.Plans and designs,12.Poetical talent,449.Poetry,176.Posterity, the appeal to,408.Power of conviction,84.Practical men and thinkers,395.Praising a man,323.Prayer,315.Predestination,355.Prejudices,215.Primeval powers,236.Problem of science,515,551.Problematical natures,97.Problematical opinions,30.Problematical talents,171.Problems,527.Productive energy,164.Productivity,415.Progress and problems,398.Progress, conflicts of,219.Progress of science,567.Propædeutics,212,511.Protestants,205.Prudent energy,16.Psychology,433.Public, the,96,369,389,416,541.Questions,532.Reason,4.Reformation, the,313,316.Religion,312.Religious controversy,460.Renaissance, the,313.Revolution, saying on the,373.Revolutionary sentiments,216.Rhythm,131.Riddles,62.Ridiculous, the,291-4.Right, doing what is,77.Rocks of offence,306.Roland, Madame,403.Romances,422.Romantic landscape,480.Romanticism,462,464.Sakontala,472.Satisfaction,586.Scepticism,340-1.Schiller, Goethe and,434-5.Scholar, the real,309.Schön, Martin,504.Schools of thought,569.Science: its course,518,540-1,545-6,567,570-1,589.Science: its problem,515.Sects,522.Self-appreciation,20,56,111,249,366.Self-guidance,21-2,24-5,33.Self-knowledge,2.Senses,345-6.Senses, false tendencies of,487.Sentimental poetry,423.Sentimentality, national,429.Service,196.Shakespeare,473-5.Silence,32.Sincerity and impartiality,151.Sketches,510.Society,250.Society, soldiers and civilians in,258-9.Society, the best,230,289.Soporifics,76.Sowing and reaping,279.Spectacles,261.Speech,382.Speech and language,123.Speech and writing,377.Speeches,287.Spinozism in poetry,427.Steady activity,154.Sterne,476.Subordination,191.Success in the world,6,19,368.Superiority of another,270.Superstition,31,424.Symbolism,202.Tact,26-7.Tattle,148.Tattooing,79.Teaching,519,562-3.Theatre, effect of the,197.Theory,44,520,557.Theory and experience,198."Things of another world,"242-3.Thinkers,416.Thinking for oneself,8.Thoroughness,41.Thought,1,396,412,533,563.Thoughts at the close of life,403.Timon, saying of,127.Toleration,356.Tradition,392,563.Tragedies,470.Translation,426,479.Troubles,104.Truth,14,28,60,120,163,336,531,547,553.Truth and error,108-9,137,185,199,213,468,528,549,552.Truth to oneself and others,337.Tyranny of great ideas,51.Ultimate facts,558.Unconditioned, striving after the,372.Understanding,81,383,388.Unfathomable, the,576-7.Unities, the three,428.Unjust blame,96.Unqualified activity,9.Use and value,541-2.Value of each day,332.Vanitas vanitatum!114.Vanity,376.Veni Creator Spiritus,425.Visitors,252-3.Voluntary dependence,266.Vulgarity,222.Wisdom of this world,307.Wishing people well,128.Will,324.Word and picture,155.Words of praise and blame,468.Work,57.Work for the past and the future,364.Work, how it limits us,220.World, the,158,565.Worthiest lot, the,342.Youth,588.