Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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No doubt you are right... there would be far less suffering amongst mankind if men... did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.
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Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.
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Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.
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Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.
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The day is of infinite length for him who knows how to appreciate and use it.
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I do not now begin, - I still adore Her whom I early cherish'd in my breast; Then once again with prudence dispossess'd, And to whose heart I'm driven back once more. The love of Petrarch, that all-glorious love, Was unrequited, and, alas, full sad.
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Translators are like busy match-makers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty, and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.
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There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.
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A noble soul alone can noble souls attract; And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
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To tremble before anticipated evils is to bemoan what thou hast never lost.
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For usually people resist as long as they can to dismiss the fool they harbor in their bosom, they resist to confess a major mistake or to admit a truth that makes them despair.
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He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.
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A phenomenon like Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.
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Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.]
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Plunge boldly into the thick of life!
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Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
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It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself.
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Limitation of aims is the mother of wisdom and the secret of achievement.
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The highest happiness of man ... is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.
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Superstition is part of the poetry of life.
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In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.
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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.
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Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.
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One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.