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Ideas of Novalis, by Text

[German, 1772 - 1801, aka Friedrich von Hardenberg. Poet, story writer, philosopher, mining engineer.]

1798 Logological Fragments I
p.145 Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Pinkard]
01 p.47 The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy
02 p.47 If the pupil really yearns for the truth, they only need a hint
04 p.48 A problem is a solid mass, which the mind must break up
21 p.53 Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent
79 p.64 Philosophy only begins when it studies itself
84 p.65 Whoever first counted to two must have seen the possibility of infinite counting
91 p.65 Every person has his own language
99 p.66 Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel
vol 3 p.640 p.77 Poetry is true idealism, and the self-consciousness of the universe
1798 Logological Fragments II
09 p.68 Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox
19 p.73 Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system
31 p.77 The highest aim of philosophy is to combine all philosophies into a unity
38 p.162 Logic (the theory of relations) should be applied to mathematics
39 p.162 Philosophy relies on our whole system of learning, and can thus never be complete
1798 Miscellaneous Observations
008 p.24 Delusion and truth differ in their life functions
010 p.24 Experiences tests reason, and reason tests experience
020 p.26 The seat of the soul is where our inner and outer worlds interpenetrate
038 p.29 If man sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself, by acting against his own convictions
072 p.34 Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals
073 p.35 Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead
094 p.40 Everything is a chaotic unity, then we abstract, then we reunify the world into a free alliance
101 p.41 Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful
1798 Teplitz Fragments
33 p.107 Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate
1798 Fath and Love, or the King and Queen
18 p.88 The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person
1799 General Draft
33 p.131 Desire for perfection is an illness, if it turns against what is imperfect
45 p.135 Philosophy is homesickness - the urge to be at home everywhere
1800 Last Fragments
10 p.154 The basic relations of nature are musical
15 p.155 Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history
17 p.156 General statements about nature are not valid
18 p.157 Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood
20 p.157 The whole body is involved in the formation of thoughts