Status Updates From Alexander von Humboldt und ...

Reading this book for the third time!

A college course

„Humboldt's insight that we can only truly understand nature by using our imagination makes him a visionary.
This connection between knowledge, art and poetry, between science and emotions - the 'deeply-seated bond' […] - is more important than ever before. Humboldt was driven by a sense of wonder for the natural world - a sense of wonder that might help us today realize that we only protect what we love.“

„Haeckel wrote, art was one of the most important educational tools […]. What Humboldt had called the 'scientific and aesthetic contemplation' of the natural world, Haeckel now insisted, was essential for the understanding of the universe, and it was this appreciation that became a 'natural religion'. As long as there were scientists and artists, Haeckel believed, there was no need for priests and cathedrals.“

„On the morning of 6 May 1859 it was announced that the strength of the patient was failing 'from hour to hour'. That afternoon, at 2.30 p.m., Humboldt opened his eyes one more time as the sun caressed the walls of his bedroom and uttered his last words: 'How glorious these sunbeams are! They seem to call Earth to the Heavens!' He was eighty-nine when he died.“