“In order to ameliorate without commotion new institutions must be made, as it were, to rise out of those which the barbarism of centuries has consecrated. It will one day seem incredible that until the year 1826 there existed no law in the Great Antilles to prevent the sale of young infants and their separation from their parents, or to prohibit the degrading custom of marking the negroes with a hot iron, merely to enable these human cattle to be more easily recognized.”
“Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.”
Alexander von Humboldt
“Devoted from my earliest youth to the study of nature, feeling with enthusiasm the wild beauties of a country guarded by mountains and shaded by ancient forests, I experienced in my travels, enjoyment...”
Alexander von Humboldt
“One of the noblest characteristics which distinguish modern civilization from that of remoter times is, that it has enlarged the mass of our conceptions, rendered us more capable of perceiving the con...”
Alexander von Humboldt
“The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.”
Alexander von Humboldt
“Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.”
Alexander von Humboldt
