The sun had, in the meanwhile, sunk behind the Ettersberg. We felt in the wood the chill of the evening, and drove all the quicker to Wiemar, and to Goethe's house. Goethe urged me to go in with him for a while, and I did so. He was in an extremely engaging mood. He talked a great deal about his theory of colors, and of his obstinate opponents; remarking that he was sure that he had done something in this science.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer.

Children, like dogs, have so sharp and fine a scent that they detect and hunt out everything--the bad before all the rest. They also know well enough how this or that friend stands with their parents; and as they practice no dissimulation whatever, they serve as excellent barometers by which to observe the degree of favor or disfavor at which we stand with their parents.

Experiments are mediators between nature and idea.

The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.

A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others