Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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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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If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
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Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.
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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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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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Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.
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The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth. [Ger., Das erste und letzte, was vom Genie gefordert wird, ist Wahreits-Liebe.]
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What is fruitful alone is true.
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In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.
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The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.
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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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If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.
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Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.
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Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.
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The happy do not believe in miracles.
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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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Several classical sayings that one likes to repeat had quite a different meaning from the ones later times attributed to them.
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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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Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.
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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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Woe to him who would ascribe something like reason to Chance, and make a religion of surrendering to it.
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Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.
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I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.