Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live.
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I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.
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It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to be foolishness before God.
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That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.
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Duration in change.
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Normally, people believe that, if they hear just words, that these words must lead to some thought.
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The fine emotions whence our lives we mold Lie in the earthly tumult dumb and cold.
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The history of mankind is his character.
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The follies of the wise man are known to himself, but hidden from the world.
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Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.
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Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.
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The soul of the Christian religion is reverence.
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A person hears only what they understand.
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Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
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One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.
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The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity--to see him taken up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling miserably over everything.
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Man can find no better retreat from the world than art, and man can find no stronger link with the world than art.
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God help us -- for art is long, and life so short.
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Generosity wins favour for everyone, especially when it is accompanied by modesty.
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We blame equally him who is too proud to put a proper value on his own merit and him who prizes too highly his spurious worth.
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He who possesses science and art, Possesses religion as well; He who possesses neither of these, Had better have religion.
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Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.
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By seeking and blundering we learn.
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Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.