Jacob Burckhardt Quotes

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The picture I have formed of the terribles simplificateurs [terrible simplifiers] who are going to descend upon poor old Europe is not an agreeable one.

Jacob Burckhardt

The seventeenth century is everywhere a time in which the state's power over everything individual increases, whether that power be in absolutist hands or may be considered the result of a contract, etc. People begin to dispute the sacred right of the individual ruler or authority without being aware that at the same time they are playing into the hands of a colossal state power.

Jacob Burckhardt

History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another.

Jacob Burckhardt

All spiritual growth takes place by leaps and bounds, both in the individual and…in the community. The crisis is to be regarded as a new nexus of growth.

Jacob Burckhardt

In history the way of annihilation is invariably prepared by inward degeneration, by decrease of life. Only then can a shock from outside put an end to the whole.

Jacob Burckhardt

Jacob Burckhardt

Jacob Burckhardt

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Born: May 25, 1818

Died: August 8, 1897 (aged 79)

Bio: Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history.

Known for:

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860)
The Age of Constantine the Great (1853)
The Greeks and Greek civilization
History of Greek culture
The letters of Jacob Burckhardt

Jacob Burckhardt on Wikipedia

Jacob Burckhardt works on Gutenberg Project

Jacob Burckhardt works on Wikisource

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