Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with rest; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm us.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
Language makes infinite use of finite media.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language is a powerful tool that conveys limitless thoughts through limited forms of expression.
This quote by Wilhelm Von Humboldt illustrates the extraordinary capacity of language to express an endless array of ideas and emotions, using only a finite number of words and grammatical structures. It highlights the richness and creativity inherent in human communication, where the limitations of language are often transcended by the depth and variety of human thought and experience.
Themes
LanguageCommunicationExpressionThoughtCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of language in education.
More from Wilhelm Von Humboldt
All quotes βOnly what we have wrought into our character during life can we take with us.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
Wherever the citizen becomes indifferent to his fellows, so will the husband be to his wife, and the father of a family toward the members of his household.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
Joy mingled with sadness, even with grief, is the deepest human joy. It winds itself about the soul with indescribable sweetness, with a dim but unerring sense for what will some day be born of it.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
All situations in which the interrelationships between extremes are involved are the most interesting and instructive.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
It is an absolutely vain endeavor to attempt to reconstruct or even comprehend the nature of a human being by simply knowing the forces which have acted upon him. However deeply we should like to penetrate, however close we seem to be drawing to truth, one unknown quantity eludes us: man's primordial energy, his original self, that personality which was given him with the gift of life itself. On it rests man's true freedom; it alone determines his real character.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
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My language! heavens!I am the best of them that speak this speech. Were I but where 'tis spoken.
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Language is one of the greatest gifts man has devised for himself. It ranks, alongside the discovery of fire and the wheel, as a major influence in making modern man what he is today.
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I have every reason to believe that an individual man or woman fluent in several tongues seduces, possesses, remembers differently according to his or her use of the relevant language.
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Look at almost any passage, and you'll find that a paragraph has five or six metaphors in it. It's not that the speaker is trying to be poetic, it's just that that's the way language works.
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