Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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He who moves not forward, goes backward.
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Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.
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There is nothing in life so irrational, that good sense and chance may not set it to rights; nothing so rational, that folly and chance may not utterly confound it.
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Investigate what is, and not what pleases.
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The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
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In der Kunst ist das Beste gut genug.
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The artist who is not also a craftsman is no good; but, alas, most of our artists are nothing else.
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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.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others.
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As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
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Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.
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Only mankind Can do the impossible: He can distinguish, He chooses and judges, He can give permanence To the moment.
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Nicht vor Irrthum zu bewahren, ist die Pflicht des Menschen erziehers; sondern den Irrenden zu leiten, ja ihn seinen Irrthum aus vollen Bechern ausschlürfen zu lassen, das ist Weisheit der Lehrer. Wer seinen Irrthum nur kostet, hält lange damit Haus; er freuet sich dessen als eines seltenen Glücks; aber wer ihn ganz erschöpft, der muß ihn kennenlernen.
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What right those who govern have to govern they don't question, they just govern. Whether the people have a right to depose them that doesn't concern them. All they are concerned with is that the people will not be tempted to depose them.
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My son, whoever wishes to keep a secret, must hide from us that he possesses one. Self complaisance over the concealed destroys its concealment.
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Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.
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With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.
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Time flies, and what is past is done.
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How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.
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Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.
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We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.
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To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.
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God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.