As a rule, theologians know nothing of this world, and far less of the next; but they have the power of stating the most absurd propositions with faces solemn as stupidity touched by fear.It is a part...
He [Alexander von Humboldt] was to science what Shakespeare was to the drama.
[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived.
This man [Alexander von Humboldt] is as knowledgeable as a whole academy.
But when on shore, & wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand -...
[Alexander von] Humboldt showers us with true treasures.
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will...
I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met.
Humboldt's early biographer, F.A. Schwarzenberg, subtitled his life of Humboldt What May Be Accomplished in a Lifetime. He summarised the areas of his subject's extraordinary curiosity as follows: '1)...