What am I then...? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished by countless different individuals, by innocent and wise ones, people of intelligence and dunces. Childhood, maturity and old age all have brought me their thoughts....their perspectives on life. I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe.

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.

We are not all equal, nor can we be so.

Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child.

The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

We should treat children as God does us, who makes us happiest when He leaves us under the influence of innocent delusions.