Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
He alone is great and happy who requires neither to command nor to obey in order to secure his being of some importance in the world.
To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state.
He who moves not forward, goes backward.
Mastery is often taken for egotism.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Altogether national hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who think they are free.
We are never deceived: we deceive ourselves.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.
Nothing is more revolting than the majority; for it consists of few vigorous predecessors, of knaves who accommodate themselves, of weak people who assimilate themselves, and the mass that toddles after them without knowing in the least what it wants.
Everything great and intelligent is in the minority.
Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one’s ego except by love.
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.