“I came to Berlin not to visit its museums and galleries, its operas, its theaters, but for the sake of seeing and speaking with the world's greatest living man - Alexander von Humboldt.”

Prioritising an encounter with a living genius over ordinary sightseeing · Travel writings

• Admiration
• Genius
• Travel

“To Truth's house there is a single door, which is experience.”

Affirming lived experience as the only reliable path to truth · As commonly attributed from his writings

• Experience
• Knowledge
• Truth

“People can't see that if I had not been a poet, I could never have had such success as a traveler.”

Linking the poetic sensibility to the power of observation in travel · Letter, as recorded in Life and Letters

• Observation
• Poetry
• Travel