Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him!
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Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
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There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).
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Look at a man the way he is and he only becomes worse, but look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be.
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It is delivery that makes the orators success.
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All perishable is but an allegory.
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The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty, Even though this world is forever altering its values.
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The society of women is the element of good manners.
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The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.
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Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.
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A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
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In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.
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Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny.
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Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.
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Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion.
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The experiences show us just as we are; they make us see our own defects.
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Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden,Doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern.
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We who didn't inherit political power nor are made to acquire riches like nothing better than that which expands and solidifies the power of the spirit.
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I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.
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Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears.
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Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.
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To make an epoch in the world, two conditions are manifestly essential-a good head and a great inheritance.
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Nothing is more dangerous than solitude.
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Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.