A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheNothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWithout my attempts in natural science, I should never have learned to know mankind such as it is. In nothing else can we so closely approach pure contemplation and thought, so closely observe the errors of the senses and of the understanding, the weak and strong points of character.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe