Before abstraction everything is one, but one like chaos; after abstraction everything is united again, but this union is a free binding of autonomous, self-determined beings. Out of a mob a society has developed, chaos has been transformed into a manifold world.

— Novalis

Novalis Quotes

One should, when overwhelmed by the shadow of a giant, move aside and see if the colossal shadow isn’t merely that of a pygmy blocking out the sun.

— Novalis

The highest purpose of intellectual cultivation is to give a man a perfect knowledge and mastery of his own inner self.

— Novalis

The history of every individual man should be a Bible.

— Novalis

It is certain my belief gains quite infinitely the very moment I can convince another mind thereof.

— Novalis

How do we see physically? No differently that we do in our consciousness – by means of the productive power of imagination. Consciousness is the eye and ear, the sense for inner and outer meaning.

— Novalis

Mathematics is the Life of the Gods.

— Novalis

We are on a mission: we are called to the cultivation of the earth .

— Novalis

We touch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body!

— Novalis

Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy. To pray is to make religion.

— Novalis

A certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth and spread of the highest mind; and therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods, who shun the restless tumult of noisy companies and the discussion of petty interests.

— Novalis

Building worlds is not enough for the deeper urging mind; but a loving heart sates the striving spirit.

— Novalis

Play is experimenting with chance.

— Novalis

Nature is a petrified magic city.

— Novalis

Hypotheses are nets: only he who casts will catch.

— Novalis

Not only England, but every Englishman is an island.

— Novalis

We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend.

— Novalis

Nothing is more indispensable to true religiosity than a mediator that links us with divinity.

— Novalis

Friendship, love, and piety ought to be handled with a sort of mysterious secrecy; they ought to be spoken of only in the rare moments of perfect confidence, to be mutually understood in silence. Many things are too delicate to be thought; many more, to be spoken.

— Novalis

Darwin remarks that we are less dazzled by the light at waking, if we have been dreaming of visible objects. Happy are those who have here dreamt of a higher vision! They will the sooner be able to endure the glories of the world to come.

— Novalis

I often feel, and ever more deeply I realize, that fate and character are the same conception.

— Novalis
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