Frasi di Johann Georg Hamann

„Il poeta è lo storico del cuore umano.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

„Io sono del parere che la chiarezza possa far perdere ai pensieri gran parte della loro novità, arditezza e verità.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

„La chiarezza è una giusta distribuzione di luce e ombra.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

„La chiarezza di certi libri è spesso inganno e insufficienza, ed è esposta anche a molti abusi.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

„Lucifero del secolo.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 240
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„[…] la Natura e la Sacra Scrittura sono i materiali dello spirito bello che crea e imita.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 239
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„I sensi e le passioni parlano e comprendono soltanto immagini. Nelle immagini è l'intero tesoro dell'umana conoscenza e felicità.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 239
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„[…] genere naturale di profezia.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 239
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„La poesia è la lingua madre della razza umana; così come il giardinaggio è più antico dell'agricoltura, la pittura della scrittura, il canto della declamazione, le similitudini dei sillogismi, lo scambio del commercio.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 239
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„Nessun gioco di prestigio estetico può rimpiazzare il sentimento immediato.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 241
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„Il genio sonda tutte le cose, anche le cose più profonde di Dio.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Capitolo nono, Lo Sturm und Drang e Herder, p. 240
Citato in René Wellek, Storia della critica moderna, I. Dall'Illuminismo al Romanticismo.

„A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), p. 147.

„The product of paper and printed ink, that we commonly call the book, is one of the great visible mediators between spirit and time, and, reflecting zeitgeist, lasts as long as ore and stone.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

„Without language we would have no reason, without reason no religion, and without these three essential aspects of our nature, neither mind nor bond of society.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Sämtliche Werken, ed. Josef Nadler (1949-1957), vol. III, p. 231.

„If only I was as eloquent as Demosthenes, I would have to do no more than repeat a single word three times. Reason is language — Logos; I gnaw on this marrowbone and will gnaw myself to death over it. It is still always dark over these depths for me: I am still always awaiting an apocalyptic angel with a key to this abyss.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Briefwechsel, ed. Arthur Henkel (Wiesbaden/Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 1955-1975), vol. V, p. 177.

„Let us assume that we invited an unknown person to a game of cards. If this person answered us, “I don’t play,” we would either interpret this to mean that he did not understand the game, or that he had an aversion to it which arose from economic, ethical, or other reasons. Let us imagine, however, that an honorable man, who was known to possess every possible skill in the game, and who was well versed in its rules and its forbidden tricks, but who could like a game and participate in it only when it was an innocent pastime, were invited into a company of clever swindlers, who were known as good players and to whom he was equal on both scores, to join them in a game. If he said, “I do not play,” we would have to join him in looking the people with whom he was talking straight in the face, and would be able to supplement his words as follows: “I don’t play, that is, with people such as you, who break the rules of the game, and rob it of its pleasure. If you offer to play a game, our mutual agreement, then, is that we recognize the capriciousness of chance as our master; and you call the science of your nimble fingers chance, and I must accept it as such, it I will, or run the risk of insulting you or choose the shame of imitating you.” … The opinion of Socrates can be summarized in these blunt words, when he said to the Sophists, the leaned men of his time, “I know nothing.”“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Therefore these words were a thorn in their eyes and a scourge on their backs.
Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), pp. 165-167.

„The philosophers have always given truth a bill of divorce, by separating what nature has joined together and vice versa.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Sämtliche Werken, ed. Josef Nadler (1949-1957), vol. III, p. 40.

„Not only the entire ability to think rests on language… but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Sämtliche Werken, ed. Josef Nadler (1949-1957), vol. III, p. 286.

„Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race.“

—  Johann Georg Hamann

Sämtliche Werken, ed. Josef Nadler (Vienna: Verlag Herder, 1949-1957), vol. II, p. 197.