Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
-
Rash, inexperienced youth holds itself a chosen instrument, and allows itself unbounded license.
-
Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
-
Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.
-
If we are out of synch with ourselves, everything is out of synch for us.
-
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.
-
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
-
Habit is the most imperious of all masters.
-
People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.
-
I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.
-
Lose this day loitering 'Twill be the same old story, Tomorrow and the next, Even more dilatory. Whatever you would do, Or dream of doing, begin it! Boldness has power, genius, and magic in it. Begin it now.
-
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.
-
One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.
-
The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.
-
Art will always be art.
-
A great artist... must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.
-
Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.
-
One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn't every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?
-
Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
-
You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
-
The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.
-
Oh, happy he who still hopes he can emerge from Error's boundless sea! - Faust.
-
A great scholar is seldom a great philosopher.
-
He who is firm and resolute in will molds the world to himself.