Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.
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The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
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Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.
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Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
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I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.
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No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
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The safest thing is always to try to convert everything that is in us and around us into action; let the others talk and argue about it as they please.
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We're really up against it, we poor women: A bachelor's a hard thing to convert.
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As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.
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If you inquire what people are like here, I must answer, "The same as everywhere."
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If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.
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The most damaging prejudice consists of banning any kind of investigation of nature.
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Children, love one another, and if that is not possible-at least try to put up with one another.
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Only that type of story deserves to be called moral that shows us that one has the power within oneself to act, out of the conviction that there is something better, even against one's own inclination.
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Music is so elevated that it is beyond the reach of intellect and there flows from it an influence which is all-potent, and which noone can explain.
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What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown.
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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
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There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.
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The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.
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To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.
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Names are but noise and smoke, Obscuring heavenly light.
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Battle not with monsters, for then you become one.
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Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.