Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.
-
Do not hurry; do not rest.
-
Der umgang mit frauen ist das element guter sitten.
-
To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.
-
All perishable is but an allegory.
-
The close and thoughtful observer more and more learns to recognize his limitations. He realizes that with the steady growth of knowledge more and more new problems keep on emerging.
-
Someday someone will write a pathology of experimental physics and bring to light all those swindles which subvert our reason, beguile our judgement and, what is worse, stand in the way of any practical progress. The phenomena must be freed once and for all from their grim torture chamber of empiricism, mechanism, and dogmatism; they must be brought before the jury of man's common sense.
-
The desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity affecting the whole body of science, known, it is true, to men of insight, but not generally admitted.
-
An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses.
-
As beauteous is the world, and many a joy Floats through its wide dominion. But, alas, When we would seize the winged good, it flies.
-
The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.
-
Only mankind Can do the impossible: He can distinguish, He chooses and judges, He can give permanence To the moment.
-
It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.
-
Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy, and in his own way, perfect.
-
If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.
-
To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden.
-
Art is a mediator of the unspeakable.
-
Shakespeare is a great psychologist, and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.
-
You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.
-
Association with women is the basis of good manners.
-
My son, whoever wishes to keep a secret, must hide from us that he possesses one. Self complaisance over the concealed destroys its concealment.
-
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
-
Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon, and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us; and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.
-
Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.