Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Hatred is partial, but love is still more so.
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Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap.
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I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times... Man is a dialogue between nature and God. On other planets this dialogue will doubtless be of a higher and profounder character. What is lacking is Self-Knowledge. After that the rest will follow.
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If you want to make life easy, make it hard.
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It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of us, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true.
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Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power.
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Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.
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The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.
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Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.
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Hypotheses are the scaffolds which are erected in front of a building and removedd when the building is completed. They are indispensable to the worker; but the worker must not mistake the scaffolding for the building.
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Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.
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What sort of God would it be, who only pushed from without.
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Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.
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Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.
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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.
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A phenomenon like Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.
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I must consider more closely this cycle of good and bad days which I find coursing within myself. Passion, attachment, the urge to action, inventiveness, performance, order all alternate and keep their orbit; cheerfulness, vigor, energy, flexibility and fatigue, serenity as well as desire. Nothing disturbs the cycle for I lead a simple life, but I must still find the time and order in which I rotate.
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Without haste! without rest! Bind the motto to thy breast! Bear it with thee as a spell; Storm or sunshine, guard it well.
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Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning to that path which nature has marked out for him.
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The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.
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One can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
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He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.