Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

All sects seem to me to be right in what they assert, and wrong in what they deny.

Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.

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

Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hope of new pleasure, is it worthwhile to dress and undress?

It is so hard that one cannot really have confidence in doctors and yet cannot do without them.

What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

Sceptics are yet the most credulous.

Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion

He is happy as well as great who needs neither to obey nor to command in order to be something.

I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.

Man can find no better retreat from the world than art, and man can find no stronger link with the world than art.

Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.

With little art, clear wit and sense Suggest their own delivery.

The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.

No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

The Primal Plant is going be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself must envy me. With this model and the key to it, it will be possible to go on for ever inventing plants and know that their existence is logical; that is to say, if they do not actually exist, they could, for they are not the shadowy phantoms of a vain imagination, but possess an inner necessity and truth. The same law will be applicable to all other living organisms.

I consider him of no account who esteems himself just as the popular breath may chance to raise him.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.

The older we grow, the greater become the ordeals.

We who didn't inherit political power nor are made to acquire riches like nothing better than that which expands and solidifies the power of the spirit.

It is better for you to suffer an injustice than for the world to be without law. Therefore, let everyone submit to the law.

The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources

Nothing is more damaging to the truth than an old error.

Yet through delivery orators succeed, I feel that I am far behind indeed.

I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.

He who possesses science and art, Possesses religion as well; He who possesses neither of these, Had better have religion.

The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.

The world remains ever the same.

I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.

There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

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.

Names are but noise and smoke, Obscuring heavenly light.

If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.

Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.

Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.

Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.

All understanding begins in wonder!

Whoever would do good in the world, ought not to deal in censure. We ought not to destroy, but rather construct.

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.

Toleration ought in reality to be merely a transitory mood. It must lead to recognition. To tolerate is to affront.

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an elect few.

Men are joined by conviction, sundered by opinion.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

It is unpleasant to miss even the most trifling thing to which we have been accustomed.