Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

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Higher yet and higher out of clouds and night, nearer yet and nearer rising to the light - light, serene and holy where my soul may rest, purified and lowly, sanctified and blest.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is not always needful for truth to take a definite shape; it is enough if it hovers about us like a spirit and produces harmony; if it is wafted through the air like the sound of a bell, grave and kindly.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So dear night the half of life is, And the fairest half indeed.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Culture which smooth the whole world licks, Also unto the devil sticks.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To venture an opinion is like moving a piece at chess: it may be taken, but it forms the beginning of a game that is won.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nature! We are surrounded by her and locked in her clasp: powerless to leave her, and powerless to come closer to her. Unasked and unwarned she takes us up into the whirl of her dance, and hurries on with us till we are weary and fall from her arms.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Whoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Her crown is love. Through love alone dare we come near her. She separates all existences, and all tend to intermingle. She has isolated all things in order that all may approach one another. She holds a couple of draughts from the cup of love to be fair payment for the pains of a lifetime.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Thinking by analogy is not to be despised. Analogy has this merit, that it does not settle things - does not pretend to be conclusive. On the other hand, that induction is pernicious which, with a preconceived end in view, and working right forward for only that, drags in its train a number of unsifted observations, both false and true.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cement, patch-up, and glue together, as witchdoctors do, the Newtonian doctrine, so that it could, as an embalmed corpse, preside in the style of ancient Egyptians, at the drinking bouts of physicists.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sciences destroy themselves in two ways: by the breadth they reach and by the depth they plumb.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is a sort of men who never go wrong, because they never propose to themselves anything reasonable to do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
No phenomenon can be explained in and of itself; only many comprehended together, methodically arranged, in the end yield something that could be regarded as theory. In Karl J. Fink

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He loves not who does not see the faults of the beloved as virtues.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate when we retain them near us.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Your messages I hear, but faith has not been given; The dearest child of Faith is Miracle.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The march of intellect, which licks all the world into shape, has even reached the devil.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A scientific researcher must always think of himself as a member of a jury. His only concern should be the adequacy of the evidence and the clarity of the proofs which support it. Guided by this, he will form his opinion and cast his vote without regard for whether he shares the author's views.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In science everything depends on what one calls an apercu — the discovery of something that is at the bottom of phenomena. Such a discovery is infinitely fruitful.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe