Lamps make oil-spots and candles need snuffing; it is only the light of heaven that shines pure and leaves no stain.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheHe who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheShould I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe