Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.
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Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.
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We are pantheists as natural scientists, polytheists as poets, and monotheists as moral beings.
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Der thörigste von allen Irrthümern ist, wenn junge gute Köpfe glauben, ihre Originalität zu verlieren, indem sie das Wahre anerkennen, was von andern schon anerkannt worden.
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The coward only threatens when he is safe.
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Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.
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If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to transgress them.
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You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.
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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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It is better to be doing the most insignificant thing than to reckon even a half-hour insignificant.
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What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
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Man's restlessness makes him strive.
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Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.
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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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The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.
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One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.
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Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.
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Sin writes histories, goodness is silent.
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The world is so full of simpletons and madmen, that one need not seek them in a madhouse.
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The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
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Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
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Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.
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The happy do not believe in miracles.
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Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth.