Alexander von Humboldt

The true foundation of all physical science is the idea that the complex phenomena of nature can be reduced to simple, fundamental forces.

Man can only act upon nature, and appropriate her forces to his use, by comprehending her laws.

The azure of the sky is the chromatic expression of the void.

In the great works of nature, poetry and science are one.

The desire to discover, the desire to move, to capture the mystery of things, to experience the danger, to be the first – these are the joys that call us.

The first inspiration to study nature comes from its beauty.

A physical description of the universe, a 'Cosmos', must represent both the grandeur of nature and the intellectual pleasure it affords.

The climate of a country is not merely a meteorological phenomenon; it is a powerful agent in modifying the social condition of its inhabitants.

The uniform and the simple are not the beautiful. The beautiful is always strange.

The destruction of forests, the want of permanent springs, and the existence of torrents are phenomena connected together.

Ideas often flash across our minds with the rapidity of lightning, but they are the result of long and profound reflection.

The sight of such a landscape is like the music of the spheres; it elevates the mind and fills it with a sense of the eternal.

The great discoveries which have been made in the physical sciences during the last century have, by their influence on the mind, contributed to the progress of society.

Nature is a free domain, and the profound conceptions and enjoyments she awakens within us can only be explained by the direct and living contemplation of her.

The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant worlds they mark!

The plant world offers the most striking example of the peaceful coexistence of different forms of life.

The study of nature is an intercourse with the highest mind. You should not trifle with it.

The surface of the Earth is a living whole where everything is connected.

The forces which manifest themselves in the movements of celestial bodies, in the radiation of light and heat, in electricity and magnetism, in the formation of crystals, and in the phenomena of organic life, are all branches of one and the same primordial force.

The contemplation of nature in her grand and solemn aspects is a source of the sublime.