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Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben Quotes

Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben , was an Austrian physician, poet and philosopher.

✵ 29. April 1806 – 3. September 1849   •   Other names Ernst Freiherr von Feuchtersleben
Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben photo
Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben: 18   quotes 1   like

Famous Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben Quotes

“It has been well remarked of the poems of Hafiz, that their refreshing influence does not depend so much on the sense of the words as on the tone of mind produced in the reader.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“Those views of life which deify pleasure are less likely to yield it.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“We have aimed at popularity in the best sense of that term. The truly popular writer never sinks into the vulgar crowd. He rather raises the masses by bringing the highest subjects within their comprehension, making them, without a show of erudition, easily understood”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“We cannot avoid moodiness; but we may turn to account, as does the poet, the various dispositions of the mind, or give them form and shape, as the sculptor his marble.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“You must master an object before you attempt to despise it.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“We live in stormy and unsettled times. Hence we may confer a benefit, not only on ourselves, but on others, by diverting attention from the exciting circumstances of the present day—from the disheartening eccentricities of a literature which meanders in a thousand frivolous directions—to the calm regions where the inner man, self-examined, submits himself to moral treatment. Here our connection with things, our object, our duty, become clear; and, while we quietly separate ourselves from a world which is unable to assure us of anything, we feel that the joy we thought lost again returns, and that a second innocence spreads its clear and tranquillizing light over human existence. The child may amuse himself with childish rhymes. Man should find his recreation in reflecting on his relation to the things of this life. To all has this power been vouchsafed; by all should it be exercised.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben Quotes

“The man dissatisfied with the world will be dissatisfied with himself, so as to be continually eaten up by his own ill humor. And in such a state of mind how can he retain health?”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

Health , World

“It is not enough to contemplate ourselves objectively; we must also treat ourselves objectively.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

“True philosophy is a living wisdom, for which there is no death.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

Death , Wisdom

“Composition, even when we have no idea of appearing in print, is an excellent dietetic tonic. … The best and quickest mode of banishing a painful impression, or a torturing feeling, is to give it expression in words. We thus relieve the mind from present, and fortify it against future pangs.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

Pain , Feeling , Idea , Appearance

“Our minds are so constituted that a change of objects brings nearly as much relief as actual repose.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

Change

“To correct the tribe of our younger poets we shall soon require the aid of a physician, not of a critic. Their history may be told in a few words. A young man educated, or rather mis-educated, without experience, without study, without any definite tendency, without the power of exertion, or of tasting any genuine enjoyment, becomes conscious of his miserable oscillation between existence and non-existence —between not having lived and not being about to live—between a barren past and a barren future. He now takes to novel reading, frequents the theatres, compares himself to heroes or poets, and makes verses. All on a sudden the thought flashes across his mind that his unhappy condition is connected with the unfilled profundity of his feelings—with an unsatisfied yearning of the soul. He rushes headlong into the ocean of melancholy, and indulges in expressions with which the poetic springs of latter years have inundated us; he bathes in these waters, and contemplates his own image reflected from their surface.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), pp. 136-137

Soul , Study , Reading , History

“A treatise on mental dietetics would be imperfect without some special notice of that most irrational and melancholy of all human torments, hypochondriasis. Reason, morality, wit, and even religion, have endeavoured by every possible means to exorcise this demon. By pamphlets and by books—in tragedy and in comedy — from the pulpit and on the stage, it has been denounced and ridiculed.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), p. 125

Religion , Books

“Had Mephistopheles conferred no other service on Faust than easing him for a while of his cloak of learning, the doctor would have had little cause for despair. But the act of awaking is regulated by different principles from those which govern the act of going to sleep. In the former case, the hand of force is often necessary. Life points out with an iron staff the path which each individual should follow. Happy is the man who sees this staff, and follows the path; instead of tarrying by the way until weary, and, incapable of further exertion, he sinks bleeding to the ground. A high degree of mental culture, or a delicate tact, possessed by few, are required to distinguish the necessity of earnestness, or even of pain, in the midst of enjoyment.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), P. 112

Despair , Sleep , Pain , Learning

“Until we attain a clear idea of our inclinations, the best line of conduct we can pursue is to act uprightly; and establish for ourselves certain rules, adapting them to the various conditions of our existence, so as to penetrate and purify our whole life. Among these rules, I would include the conviction that hatred may be subdued by love; and to impress this axiom more strongly on the mind, we should remember the blessings conferred by love on the human race.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), p. 104 1852 tr

Idea , Love , Life , Making love

“Who is unacquainted with the sparkling eye. The full and quick pulse, the free respiration, the glowing colour, and serene brow of the joyous? Who is not familiar with the trembling aspect, the stammering hesitation, the cold ruffled skin, the bristling hair, the palpitating heart, the uneasiness, the impeded respiration, the paleness, the low pulse, and all the other symptoms occasioned by fear?”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), p. 95 1852 tr

Fear , Heart

“As character comprises the entire sphere of the educated will, so temperament is nothing else than the sum of our natural inclinations and tendencies. Inclination is the material of the will, developing itself when controlled, into character, and when controlling, into passions. Temperament is, therefore, the root of our passions; and the latter, like the former, may be distinguished into two principal classes. Intelligent psychologists and physicians have always recognised this fact…”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

Source: The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838), p. 85 1852 tr

Passion , Education , Intelligence , Nature

“The greatest treasure that God can give his creatures is and ever will be—genuine existence.”

Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben

If these words of Herder be true, cultivation is the key to the most precious of treasures; for as Nature has insured the permanence of existence by implanting in us a force of resistance and self-renovation, so may we, on our side, increase the force of these attributes by self-acquired powers of mind.
p 75 1852 translation
The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)

God

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