“Man has ever expressed some symbolical Philosophy of his Being in his Works and Conduct”
Novalis (1829)
Context: Man has ever expressed some symbolical Philosophy of his Being in his Works and Conduct; he announces himself and his Gospel of Nature; he is the Messiah of Nature.
“Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality.”
The first sentence of this was used by William Torrey Harris for the motto of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy
Novalis (1829)
Context: Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality. Which, then, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy?
Novalis (1829)
Context: The true philosophical Act is annihilation of self (Selbsttodtung); this is the real beginning of all Philosophy; all requisites for being a Disciple of Philosophy point hither. This Act alone corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of transcendental conduct.
“Philosophy is properly Home-sickness; the wish to be everywhere at home.”
Philosophie ist eigentlich Heimweh - Trieb überall zu Hause zu sein.
Novalis (1829)
Variant: Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home.
Fichte Studies § 556
“The poem of the understanding is philosophy.”
“Logological Fragments,” Philosophical Writings, M. Stolijar, trans. (Albany: 1997) #24
“Philosophy … bears witness to the deepest love of reflection, to absolute delight in wisdom.”
“Logological Fragments,” Philosophical Writings, M. Stolijar, trans. (Albany: 1997) #12
“Only the most perfect human being can design the most perfect philosophy.”
Fichte Studies § 651
Die Möglichkeit aller Philosophie ... dass sich die Intelligenz durch Selbstberührung eine Selbstgesezmäßige Bewegung - d.i. eine eigne Form der Tätigkeit gibt.
Schriften, p. 63, as translated in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings: Volume 1, 1913-1926 (1996), p. 133
The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I.
Fichte Studies § 556