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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index S > Friedrich von Schlegel Quotes

Thumbnail of Friedrich von Schlegel (source)
Friedrich von Schlegel
(10 Mar 1772 - 12 Jan 1829)

German philosopher and poet whose philosophical ideas inspired much of the German Romantic movement.

Science Quotes by Friedrich von Schlegel (19 quotes)

Portrait of Friedrich Schlegel by Franz Gareis - upper body
Portrait of Friedrich Schlegel by Franz Gareis (source)
[The] second fundamental rule of historical science may be thus simply expressed:—we should not wish to explain every thing. Historical tradition must never be abandoned in the philosophy of history—otherwise we lose all firm ground and footing. But historical tradition, ever so accurately conceived and carefully sifted, doth not always, especially in the early and primitive ages, bring with it a full and demonstrative certainty.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Friedrich von Schlegel and James Burton Robertson (trans.), The Philosophy of History (1835), 12.
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A good preface must be at once the square root and the square of its book.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Critical Fragment 8 in Freidrich Schlegel and Peter Firchow (trans.), Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde and the Fragments (1971), 144.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Good (906)  |  Must (1525)  |  Preface (9)  |  Root (121)  |  Square (73)  |  Square Root (12)

A regiment of soldiers on parade is, according to some philosophers, a system.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
From Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). As translated by Luis H. Gray in Kuno Francke and Isidore Singer (eds.), The German Classics: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated Into English (1913), Vol. 4, 176.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Parade (3)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Regiment (2)  |  Soldier (28)  |  System (545)

Every art should become science, and every science should become art.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (1797, trans. 1968), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Science And Art (195)

Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Aphorism 63 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 137.
Science quotes on:  |  Caricature (6)  |  Himself (461)  |  Person (366)  |  Uneducated (9)

Extremely hazardous is the desire to explain everything, and to supply whatever appears a gap in history—for in this propensity lies the first cause and germ of all those violent and arbitrary hypotheses which perplex and pervert the science of history far more than the open avowal of our ignorance, or the uncertainty of our knowledge: hypotheses which give an oblique direction, or an exaggerated and false extension, to a view of the subject originally not incorrect.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Friedrich von Schlegel and James Burton Robertson (trans.), The Philosophy of History (1835), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Cause (561)  |  Desire (212)  |  Direction (185)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extension (60)  |  First (1302)  |  Gap (36)  |  Germ (54)  |  Hazard (21)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  More (2558)  |  Open (277)  |  Perplexing (2)  |  Pervert (7)  |  Subject (543)  |  Supply (100)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  View (496)  |  Whatever (234)

Form your life humanly, and you have done enough: but you will never reach the height of art and the depth of science without something divine.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Idea 68. In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 155.
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If you want to penetrate into the heart of physics, then let yourself be initiated into the mysteries of poetry.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde and the Fragments, trans. Peter Firchow (1971), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Heart (243)  |  Initiation (8)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Want (504)

It seems to be considered as a common right to all poets and artists, to live only in the world of their own thoughts, and to be quite unfitted for the world which other men inhabit.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern (1841), 5-6.
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Mathematics is, as it were, a sensuous logic, and relates to philosophy as do the arts, music, and plastic art to poetry.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Aphorism 365 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Do (1905)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Music (133)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Relation (166)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Sensuous (5)

One should drill the hole where the board is thickest.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Critical Fragment 10 in Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde and the Fragments (1971), 144.
Science quotes on:  |  Board (13)  |  Drill (12)  |  Hole (17)

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Aphorism 61 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 155.
Science quotes on:  |  Idea (881)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Poem (104)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Speaking (118)

The first fundamental rule of historical science and research, when by these is sought a knowledge of the general destinies of mankind, is to keep these and every object connected with them steadily in view, without losing ourselves in the details of special inquiries and particular facts, for the multitude and variety of these subjects is absolutely boundless; and on the ocean of historical science the main subject easily vanishes from the eye.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Friedrich von Schlegel and James Burton Robertson (trans.), The Philosophy of History (1835), 8.
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The interior parts of the earth and its internal depths are a region totally impervious to the eye of mortal man, and can least of all be approached by those ordinary paths of hypothesis adopted by naturalists and geologists. The region designed for the existence of man, and of every other creature endowed with organic life, as well as the sphere opened to the perception of man's senses, is confined to a limited space between the upper and lower parts of the earth, exceedingly small in proportion to the diameter, or even semi-diameter of the earth, and forming only the exterior surface, or outer skin, of the great body of the earth.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Friedrich von Schlegel and James Burton Robertson (trans.), The Philosophy of History (1835), 20.
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The printed page is to thought what a nursery is to the first kiss.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
From Aphorism 62 in Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). As translated by Luis H. Gray in Kuno Francke and Isidore Singer (eds.), The German Classics: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated Into English (1913), Vol. 4, 176.
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The true excellence and importance of those arts and sciences which exert and display themselves in writing, may be seen, in a more general point of view, in the great influence which they have exerted on the character and fate of nations, throughout the history of the world.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
In Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern (1841), 10.
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There are three kinds of explanation in science: explanations which throw a light upon, or give a hint at a matter; explanations which do not explain anything; and explanations which obscure everything.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Aphorism 82 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 138.
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Though genius isn't something that can be produced arbitrarily, it is freely willed—like wit, love, and faith, which one day will have to become arts and sciences. You should demand genius from everyone, but not expect it. A Kantian would call this the categorical imperative of genius.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
Critical Fragment 16 in Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde and the Fragments (1971), 144.
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Women have absolutely no sense of art, though they may have of poetry. They have no natural disposition for the sciences, though they may have for philosophy. They are by no means wanting in power of speculation and intuitive perception of the infinite; they lack only power of abstraction, which is far more easy to be learned.
— Friedrich von Schlegel
From Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). As translated by Luis H. Gray in Kuno Francke and Isidore Singer (eds.), The German Classics: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated Into English (1913), Vol. 4, 177.
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Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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