Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes


Work is as much a necessity to man as eating and sleeping. Even those who do nothing that can be called work still imagine they are doing something. The world has not a man who is an idler in his own eyes.


Citations

Humboldt, Wilhelm von. Thoughts and Opinions of a Statesman. William Pickering, 1849, p. 28.

Related Quotes

This is a variant of the anonymous political statement, “Where you stand, depends on where you sit”.


Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
  • Born: June 22, 1767
  • Died: April 8, 1835
  • Nationality: Prussian
  • Profession: Philosopher

Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named after him in 1949 (and also after his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist).