Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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If nature is your teacher, your soul will awaken.
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Some books seem to have been written, not to teach us anything, but to let us know that the author has known something.
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There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.
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Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.
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Duration in change.
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The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.
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We can most safely achieve truly universal tolerance when we respect that which is characteristic in the individual and in nations, clinging, though, to the conviction that the truly meritorious is unique by belonging to all of mankind.
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What then is your duty? What the day demands.
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Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.
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There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.
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When the healthy nature of man acts as a whole, when he feels himself to be in the world as in a great, beautiful, noble, and valued whole, when harmonious ease affords him a pure and free delight, then the universe, if it could experience itself, would exult, as having attained its goal, and admire the climax of its own becoming and essence.
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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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The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterized by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naivete.
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If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.
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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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If in the infinite you want to stride, Just walk in the finite to every side.
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Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.
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It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
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Faith is hidden household capital.
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The soul of the Christian religion is reverence.
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Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.
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One never learns to understand truly anything but what one loves.
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The history of mankind is his character.
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To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions, means ruiningtheir craft.