Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes on Philosophy

45 quotes

  1. Untersuchen was ist, und nicht was behagt

  2. The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.

  3. In limitations he first shows himself the master, And the law can only bring us freedom.

  4. For I have been a man, and that means to have been a fighter.

  5. Should 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?

  6. All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life.

  7. Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige, die uns lehrt, uns selbst zu regieren.

  8. Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. Not in the morning alone, not only at mid-day he charmeth; Even at setting, the sun is still the same glorious planet.

  9. Mehr licht.

  10. Wer nichts wagt, gerwinnt nichts. Wer nie sein Brod mit Tranen ass, Wer nie die kummervollen Nachte Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte.

  11. Seeking with the soul the land of the Greeks.

  12. A world without love would be no world.

  13. Is it so big a mystery what god and man and world are? No! but nobody knows how to solve it so the mystery hangs on.

  14. Es irrt der Mensch, so lang er strebt.

  15. Am I a god? I see so clearly!

  16. Two souls alas! dwell in my breast.

  17. Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint.

  18. Dear friend, all theory is gray, And green the golden tree of life.

  19. Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

  20. Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden. Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken.

  21. What wise or stupid thing can man conceive That was not thought of in ages long ago?

  22. Wer immer strebend sich bemuht, Den konnen wir erlosen.

  23. Alles Vergangliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.

  24. Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.

  25. Doubt grows with knowledge.

  26. The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly revere the unfathomable.

  27. First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

  28. Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best.

  29. A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.

  30. As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

  31. Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

  32. Even the lowliest, provided he is whole, can be happy, and in his own way, perfect.

  33. Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.

  34. If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

  35. Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away.

  36. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

  37. Only when we know little do we know anything; doubt grows with knowledge.

  38. Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.

  39. The best genius is that which absorbs and assimilates everything without doing the least violence to its fundamental destiny - that which we call character - but rather improving it and enhancing it as far as possible.

  40. The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.

  41. The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

  42. We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

  43. What one knows, one sees.

  44. When a man stops to ponder his physical or moral condition, he generally finds he is ill.

  45. There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste.

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