Johann Friedrich Herbart Quotes (1776-1841)

“Whatever the day brings, part of it always belongs to sympathy, for the well-being of men and states is ever changing. Thus observation and sympathy are the movements by which we make every moment of time our own—through which we properly live. When their pulse beats faintly, leisure becomes a burden; the bolder spirits then open the door of time and seek eternity.”

“It is an old complaint that man has often, as it were, two souls. He observes himself, would understand himself, would please and guide himself. But, previous to this observation, while immersed in things and externals, he has a will, and often very marked features of character. These are the objective with which the contemplating subjective either agrees or disagrees by means of a new will, created in an entirely different condition of mind and soul (Gemuthslage). In case of disagreement, which of the two wills determines the character? It is quite clear, that that, which combined would have strengthened it, now chafes and disintegrates it; that the better claims on us, if they only prevent a fall into the distinctly bad, can but preserve at best a salutary absence of character.”

“Leibniz foreshadowed the entire doctrine of the unconscious, but Herbart actually began it. Wundt was to appeal first to unconscious inference in order to explain perception, and then to apperception. Fechner was to take from Herbart the notion of the measurement of the magnitude...”

“Johann Herbart’s work on education and particularly mathematical psychology influenced me. I think mathematics is the pure instance of construct functioning—the model of human behaviour.”

“In every page of David Hume, there is more to be learned than from Hegel's, Herbart's and Schleiermacher's complete philosophical works.”