Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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I do not speak of what I cannot praise.
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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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There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.
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Amerika, du hast es besser-als unser Kontinent, der alte.
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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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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.
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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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Wishes are premonitions of abilities.
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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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What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
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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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Only he who finds empiricism irksome is driven to method.
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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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I never knew how to worship until I knew how to 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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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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No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod.
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The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
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Ich singe, wie der Vogel singtDer in den Zweigen wohnet.
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Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.
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Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.
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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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The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side.