"Few persons, out of Germany, even comprehend the meaning of the doctrine which Wilhelm von Humboldt, so eminent both as a savant and as a politician, made the text of a treatise—that "the end of man, or that which is prescribed by the eternal or immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested by vague and transient desires, is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole;" that, therefore, the object "towards which every human being must ceaselessly direct his efforts, and on which especially those who design to influence their fellow-men must ever keep their eyes, is the individuality of power and development;" that for this there are two requisites, "freedom, and a variety of situations;" and that from the union of these arise "individual vigour and manifold diversity," which combine themselves in "originality.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_Liberty
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
On Liberty
105 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by On Liberty →
Related Quotes
"Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at a…"
"All that makes existence valuable to any one, depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other peop…"
"The rules that obtain among themselves [a people] appear to them self-evident and self-justifying. This all but unive…"
"The likings and dislikings of society, or of some powerful portion of it, are thus the main thing which has practical…"
"The great writers to whom the world owes what religious liberty it possesses, have mostly asserted freedom of conscie…"
"Wherever the sentiment of the majority is still genuine and intense, it is found to have abated little of its claim t…"
"The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of soc…"
"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accoun…"
"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attem…"
"The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine…"