“How transitory all human structures are, nay how oppressive the best institutions become in the course of a few generations.”

— Johann Gottfried Herder

Vol. 2, p. 79; translation vol. 2, pp. 113-14.
Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784-91)
Context: How transitory all human structures are, nay how oppressive the best institutions become in the course of a few generations. The plant blossoms, and fades: your fathers have died, and mouldered into dust: your temple is fallen: your tabernacle, the tables of your law, are no more: language itself, that bond of mankind, becomes antiquated: and shall a political constitution, shall a system of government or religion, that can be erected solely on these, endure for ever?

Original

Wie hinfällig alles Menschenwerk, ja wie drückend auch die beste Einrichtung in wenigen Geschlechtern werde. Die Pflanze blühet und blühet ab; eure Väter starben und verwesen: euer Tempel zerfällt: dein Orakelzelt, deine Gesetztafeln sind nicht mehr: das ewige Band der Menschen, die Sprache selbst veraltet; wie? und Eine Menschenverfassung, Eine politische oder Religionseinrichtung, die doch nur auf diese Stücke gebauet sein kann: sie sollte, sie wollte ewig dauern?

Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784-91)

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Johann Gottfried Herder 18

German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic 1744–1803

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