Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Es ist so gewiß als wunderbar, daß Wahrheit und Irrthum aus Einer Quelle entstehen; deßwegen man oft dem Irrthum nicht schaden darf, weil man zugleich der Wahrheit schadet.
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Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.
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Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.
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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
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Legislators and revolutionaries who promise both equality and liberty are visionaries and charlatans.
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The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.
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Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.
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Ich singe, wie der Vogel singtDer in den Zweigen wohnet.
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Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.
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We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies.
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I have never looked at foreign countries or gone there but with the purpose of getting to know the general human qualities that are spread all over the earth in very different forms, and then to find these qualities again in my own country and to recognize and to further them.
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The happy do not believe in miracles.
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The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.
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We are pantheists when we study nature, polytheists when we write poetry, monotheists in our morality.
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
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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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Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not to-day; Still forward press, nor never tire! The possible, with steadfast trust, Resolve should be by the forelock grasp. Then she will ne'er let go her clasp, And labors on, because she must.
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Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.
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Art will always be art.
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Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them.
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When you are in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.
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Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution.
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We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.
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A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.