Wilhelm von Humboldt on War and Culture

„War seems to be one of the most salutary phenomena for the culture of human nature; and it is not without regret that I see it disappearing more and more from the scene.“

Wilhelm von HumboldtWilhelm von Humboldt reflects on war, culture, and human nature in this historical and philosophical quotation.
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Wilhelm von Humboldt was a Prussian scholar, writer, and statesman.

This historical quotation critically reflects on the supposed cultural significance of war and lies at the intersection of philosophy, history, and peace studies.


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Wilhelm von Humboldt quote about war and culture

Wilhelm von Humboldt played a key role in reforming the educational system in Prussia and founded the Humboldtian education ideal. He initiated the founding of the University of Berlin and promoted Neohumanism. His work covered political theory, linguistics, and cultural studies. Alongside his brother Alexander, he is considered an important figure in German cultural history.

Albert Einstein quote image about war, patriotism, and humanityCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that does by the name of patriotism--how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. And yet so high, in spite of everything, is my opinion of the human race that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the nations not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press." Albert Einstein
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Quote on war, reason, and mass hysteria by Stefan ZweigCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"The tales of gouged-out eyes and severed hands which appear on the third or fourth day of every war filled the newspapers. They did not know, those innocents who spread such lies, that the accusation of every possible cruelty against the enemy is as much war materiel as are munitions and planes, and that they are systematically taken out of storage at the beginning of every war. War does not permit itself to be coordinated with reason and righteousness. [...] Shakespeare was banned from the German stage, Mozart and Wagner from the French and English concert halls, German professors declared that Dante had been Germanic, the French that Beethoven had been a Belgian, intellectual culture was requisitioned without scruple from the enemy countries like grain and ore. [...] After a few weeks, determined to escape this dangerous mass psychosis, I moved to a rural suburb to commence my personal war in the midst of war, the struggle against the betrayal of Reason by the current mass passion." Stefan Zweig
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