Alexander von Humboldt

Language, like vegetation, requires a certain degree of heat and social culture.

The deepest and rarest charm of mountain scenery is the feeling of solitude.

A work of art is not a matter of thinking beautiful thoughts or experiencing tender emotions (though these are its raw materials), but of intelligence, skill, taste, proportion, knowledge, discipline and industry; especially discipline.

The heavens and the earth are mutually sympathetic, and the purest harmonies of the physical world are found in the celestial motions.

The connection between the distribution of plants and the physical conditions of the Earth is one of the most interesting subjects of study.

Man is a creature of his environment; the forces of nature shape his character and destiny.

The past and the future are equally present in the mind of the Deity; but man, confined within the narrow limits of time, sees only the present.

The great problem of the physical description of the globe is to reduce all perceived phenomena to general principles.

The luxuriance of tropical vegetation depends not merely on heat, but on the combination of heat with moisture.

The history of civilization shows us that man advances most rapidly when he is compelled to struggle against the obstacles presented by nature.

In the immense chain of causes and effects, no thing and no activity should be regarded in isolation.

The physiognomy of a country, its vegetation, the forms of its animals, are the faithful reflection of its internal structure.

The aim of all natural science is to discover the simplest laws that govern the universe.

The contemplation of the universe, in its vastness and its order, is the surest antidote to egoism and prejudice.

The language of nature is a universal language, understood by all intelligent beings.

The plant, from the root to the capitulum, is a continuous whole, a harmonic unity.

The true worth of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth.

The geographical distribution of organic beings is the most complex branch of natural history.

The feeling of the sublime is the feeling of being in the presence of something infinitely greater than oneself.

The volcano and the earthquake, however terrible their devastations, are but manifestations of the vital energy of the globe.