Quotes from Novalis

But even more heavenly than the flashing stars are those infinite eyes which the night opens within us, and which see further even than the palest of those innumerable hosts.

Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history.

Love works magic. It is the final purpose of the world story, the Amen of the universe.

Light had its allotted time; but timeless and infinite is the reign of the night ? the duration of sleep eternal.

Humanity is the higher meaning of our planet, the nerve that connects this part of it with the upper world, the eye it raises to heaven.

Perceptibility is a kind of attentiveness.

Die Welt muß romantisiert werden. So findet man den ursprünglichen Sinn wieder. Romantisieren ist nichts, als eine qualitative Potenzierung. Das niedre Selbst wird mit einem bessern Selbst in dieser Operation identifiziert. (…) Indem ich dem Gemeinen einen hohen Sinn, dem Gewöhnlichen ein geheimnisvolles Ansehn, dem Bekannten die Würde des Unbekannten, dem Endlichen einen unendlichen Schein gebe so romantisiere ich es.

Man has his being in truth--if he sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself. Whoever betrays truth betrays himself. It is not a question of lying--but of acting against one's conviction.

Everything is seed.

Apparently, we go forward.

The highest task of education is—to take command of one's transcendental self—to be at once the I of its I. It is all the less to be wondered at that we lack complete insight and understanding for others. Without perfect self-understanding one will never learn to truly understand others.

Whoever sees life other than as a self-destroying illusion is himself still preoccupied with life. Life must not be a novel that is given to us, but one that is made by us.

Wer Schmetterlinge lachen hört, der weiß wie Wolken schmecken.

What delights, what pleasures does your life offer you that outweigh the raptures of death?

When one begins to reflect on philosophy—then philosophy seems to us to be everything, like God, and love. It is a mystical, highly potent, penetrating idea—which ceaselessly drives us inward in all directions. The decision to do philosophy—to seek philosophy is the act of self-liberation—the thrust toward ourselves.

The fate which oppresses us is the inertia of our spirit. Through extending and cultivating our activity we shall transform ourselves into fate. Everything seems to stream inward into us, because we do not stream outward. We are negative because we want to be—the more positive we become, the more negative will the world around us become—until at last there will be no more negation—but instead we are all in all. God wants there to be gods.

I show that I have understood a writer only when I can act in his spirit, when, without constricting his individuality, I can translate him and change him in diverse ways.

Ohne die Träume würden wir gewiss früher alt.

Longing for Death Down into the womb of the earth, Out of the kingdom of light, Anger, pain, and a savage blow Signal the happy departure.

The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap.

The more narrow-minded a system is the more it will please worldly-wise people. Thus the system of the materialists, the doctrine of Helvetius and also Locke has recieved the most acclaim amongst his class. Thus Kant even now will find more followers than Fichte.

Many books are longer than they seem. They have indeed no end. The boredom that they cause is truly absolute and infinite.

Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will.

The process of history is combustion.