Novalis in Five Quotes

The Blue Flower comes from Novalis, but more than 200 years later his words really hit home. Here are five of my favorite quotes.

1. “Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.”

He’s not saying that reason is bad, just that a meaningful life needs both.

2. “We are more closely connected to the invisible than to the visible.”

The world is deeper than it first appears.

3. “Where are we really going? Always home.”

My favorite. Home isn't so much a place as a feeling.

4. “In a work of art, chaos must shimmer through the veil of order.”

Great art is a balancing act between structure and surprise.

5. “To romanticize the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite.”

I was recently asked if I could distill Blue Flower philosophy into a single sentence.

At first, I started thinking about all those big philosophical ideas, some of which we’ve discussed here. But then I stopped. Instead, I thought about Sparkle Valley, Emily. Abigail. I thought about thin places. That moment on the bridge with my daughter. I thought about all that and I came up with this:

The world is much stranger, more beautiful, and more meaningful than we usually allow ourselves to see.

Everything else is commentary.'

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