F. Max Müller > Quotes

“A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.”
― Max Muller

“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered over the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of the Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human a life... again I should point to India.”
― Max Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“نحن نجهل إلى أي العوالم يمضي بنا هذا الرسول
الليلي حينما نستسلم له بعيون مغمضة وليس من يتكفل بفتحها في الغد ليعيدنا
إلى يقظة العمر. لقد تعلق الإنسان بأهداب الشجاعة والإيمان يوم تلقاه الصديق
المجهول فنومه النومة الأولى، ولولا ما فطرنا عليه من ثقة وامتثال لأبى الواحد منا،
رغم التعب والنصب، أن يغمض عينيه بمحض إرادته ويدخل مملكة النوم. إنما هما
الضعف والشقاء تشتد علينا وطأتهما فنلجأ إلى قوة عليا ونرضخ للنظام البديع
النافذ في جميع الكائنات، فنسعد إبان الرقاد بحل الروابط التي تقيد ذاتنا الأبدية
الخالدة بذاتنا الأرضية الزائلة”
― Friedrich Max Müller, ابتسامات ودموع

“...universities were not meant entirely, or even chiefly, as stepping-stones to an examination, but that there is something else which universities can teach and ought to teach—nay, which I feel quite sure they were originally meant to teach—something that may not have a marketable value before a Board of Examiners, but which has a permanent value for the whole of our life, and that is a real interest in our work, and, more than that, a love of our work, and, more than that, a true joy and happiness in our work...”
― F. Max Muller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“Is not a dew-drop on a blade of grass more beautiful than a pearl set in gold? Is not a living spring, which gushes up before us, we know not whence, more beautiful than all the fountains of Versailles?”
― Friedrich Max Müller

“If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can bestow—in some parts a very paradise on earth—I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most full developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant—I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal life—again I should point to India.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can it Teach Us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge

“The true history of the world must always be the history of the few; and as we measure the Himalaya by the height of Mount Everest, we must take the true measure of India from the poets of the Veda, the sages of the Upanishads, the founders of the Vedanta and Sankhya philosophies, and the authors of the oldest law-books, and not from the millions who are born and die in their villages, and who have never for one moment been roused out of their drowsy dream of life.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“Let us live happily, without hate amongst those who hate. Let us dwell unhating amidst hateful men.
Let us live happily, in good health amongst those who are sick.
Let us dwell in good health amidst ailing men.
Let us live happily, without yearning for sensual pleasures amongst those who yearn for them.
Let us dwell without yearning amidst those who yearn.
Let us live happily, we who have no impediments. We shall subsist on joy even as the radiant gods.”
― The Buddha

“Truthfulness is a luxury, perhaps the greatest, and let me assure you, the most expensive luxury in our life—and happy the man who has been able to enjoy it from his very child hood.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“أفكاري موجعة ،وقلبي سقيم ، ونفسي منفردة لا يُحبّها ولا يريدها في العالم أحد ، شَمّت الأرض نعشًا والسماء كفنًا يدورُ حولي، ولم أدرِ احيٌّ أنا أم ميّت ، قضى منذ زمن بعيد.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, ابتسامات ودموع

“Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study, whether it be language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive science, everywhere, you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because some of the most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India, and in India only.”
― F. Max Müller, India: What Can it Teach Us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge

“On religions: He who knows one, knows none.”
― Friedrich Max Müller

“These sons belong me, and this wealth belongs me," with such thoughts the fool is tormented. He himself does not belong to himself; how much less sons and wealth?”
― F Max Muller

“61. If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, Dhammapada

“the true conquerors often those whom the world calls the vanquished.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can it Teach Us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge

“Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law. 61. If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, The Dhammapada

“إن الدين هو كدح من أجل تصور مالايمكن تصوره,وقول مالايمكن التعبير عنه,إنه التوق إلى الانهائى”
― Max Muller

“222. He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver; other people are but holding the reins.”
― Max F. Müller, The Dhammapada

“Fishes never fly, and cats never catch frogs. These are the difficulties into which we are led ; and they arise simply and solely from our using words for their sound rather than for their meaning. We begin by playing with words, but in the end the words will play with us.”
― F. Max Müller, Selected Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion V2

“Childhood has its secrets and its mysteries; but who can tell or who can explain them!”
― Max Muller

“As all have to sleep together laid low in the earth, why do foolish people wish to injure one another?”
― F. Max Müller, India: What Can it Teach Us? – F. Max Müller Explores Indian Culture

“He only shows mankind how beautiful everything is which man's hand has not yet spoiled or broken.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, Deutsche Liebe. English

“Now let us look to the ancient inhabitants of India. With them, first of all, religion was not only one interest by the side of many. It was the all-absorbing interest; it embraced not only worship and prayer, but what we call philosophy, morality, law, and government, —all was pervaded by religion. Their whole life was to them a religion—everything else was, as it were, a mere concession made to the ephemeral requirements of this life.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“But, for all that, there is a Beyond, and he who has once caught a glance of it, is like a man who has gazed at the sun —wherever he looks, everywhere he sees the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite things, and he will tell you that the Finite is impossible and meaningless without the Infinite. Speak to him of death, and he will call it birth ; speak to him of time, and he will call it the mere shadow of eternity. To us the senses seem to be the organs, the tools, the most powerful engines of knowledge ; to him they are, if not actually deceivers, at all events heavy fetters, checking the flight of the spirit. To us this earth, this life, all that we see, and hear, and touch is certain. Here, we feel, is our home, here lie our duties, here our pleasures. To him this earth is a thing that once was not, and that again will cease to be ; this life is a short dream from which we shall soon awake. Of nothing he professes greater ignorance than of what to others seems to be most certain, namely what we see, and hear, and touch ; and as to our home, wherever that may be, he knows that certainly it is not here.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us

“As many kinds of wreaths can be made from a heap of flowers, so many good things may be achieved by a mortal when once he is born.”
― Max F. Müller, The Dhammapada

“If a man find no prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, let him walk alone, like a king who has left his conquered country behind—like an elephant in the forest. 330. It is better to live alone, there is no companionship with a fool; let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin, with few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, The Dhammapada

“As a man journeying to another village may enjoy a night's rest in the open air, but, after leaving his resting-place, proceeds again on his journey the next day, thus father, mother, wife, and wealth are all but like a night's rest to us—wise people do not cling to them forever.”
― F. Max Müller, India: What Can it Teach Us? – F. Max Müller Explores Indian Culture

“गौतम कहते हैं : ‘क्रोध, अत्यधिक आनन्द, डर, पीड़ा, क्लेश के कारण और शिशुओं, वृद्धों द्वारा तथा भ्रान्ति के अन्तर्गत श्रम कर रहे लोगों द्वारा, मदिरा के नशे में, पागल व्यक्ति द्वारा असत्य बोलने पर वह क्षम्य है और घातक पाप में नहीं गिरता।”
― F. Max Müller, Bharat : Hamein Kya Sikha Sakta Hai?

“पुनीत कर्तव्य है कि वे इन जीवित पुस्तकालयों से जो कुछ सीख सकते हैं, अवश्य सीख लें। यदि यह श्रोत्रिय-समुदाय समाप्त हो गया, तो इस प्राचीन साहित्य का बहुत बड़ा अंश उन्हीं के साथ समाप्त हो जाएगा।”
― F. Max Müller, Bharat : Hamein Kya Sikha Sakta Hai?

“उनमें से कई तो सत्य के कीटाणु और प्रकाश की किरणें हैं और यह ज्यादा विस्मयकारी इसलिए है कि ये सघनतम रात्रि के आवरण से होकर हमारे पास आ रहा है।”
― F. Max Müller, Bharat : Hamein Kya Sikha Sakta Hai?