Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Without my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can we so closely approach pure contemplation and thought, so closely observe the errors of the senses and of the understanding, the weak and strong points of character.
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Legislators and revolutionaries who promise both equality and liberty are visionaries and charlatans.
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There are few who have at once thought and capacity for action. Thought expands, but lames; action animates, but narrows.
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He who only tastes his error will long dwell with it, will take delight in it as in a singular felicity; while he who drains it to the dregs will, if he be not crazy, find it to be what it is.
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Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it.
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It is better to be doing the most insignificant thing than to reckon even a half-hour insignificant.
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Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations.
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Amerika, du hast es besser-als unser Kontinent, der alte.
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Woman is mistress of the art of completely imbittering the life of the person on whom she depends.
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Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.
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Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.He who is ignorant of foreign languages, knows not his own.
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The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
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Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.
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If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
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Toleration ought in reality to be merely a transitory mood. It must lead to recognition. To tolerate is to affront.
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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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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
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A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.
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Every situation--nay, every moment--is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.
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Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving.
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The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.
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Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
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Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.