Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.
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The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.
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Oh happy he who still can hope in our day to breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error! What we don't know is really what we need, and what we know is of no use to us whatever!
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Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.
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Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
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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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Investigate what is, and not what pleases.
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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.
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Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.
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Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!
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In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.
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Of the truly creative no one is ever master; it must be left to go its own way.
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The rabble also vent their rage in words.
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Poor fool! in whose petty estimation all things are little.
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The one who always strives, That one can be redeemed.
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What is predestination? Answer: God is more powerful and wiser than we are, therefore he deals with us according to his pleasure.
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Why should we not recognize in the lightning, the thunder, and the storm wind, the approach of an overwhelming Power, and in the scent of flowers and the gently rustling zephyr the presence of a Being full of love?
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Enjoy what you can, endure what you must.
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In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
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Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
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Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.