Individual Quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

21 Individual quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All Individual quotes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s page

Goethe’s 21 reflections trace the individual’s quest for self‑knowledge across poetry and prose, embodying the Romantic era’s devotion to personal expression.

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The history of science is science itself; the history of the individual, the individual.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Certain faults are necessary to the individual if he is to exist.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Mankind? That is an abstraction. There have always been and always will be only individuals.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Even though the world as a whole progresses, youth must always start again from the beginning, and as individuals go through the…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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If your treat an individual... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Faith is a homely, private capital; as there are public savings-banks and poor funds, out of which in times of want we…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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A school of art or of anything else is to be looked on as a single individual, who keeps talking to himself…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Every individual who is not creative has a negative, narrow, exclusive taste and succeeds in depriving creative being of its energy and…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities,…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing:…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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What am I then...? Everything that I have seen, heard, and observed I have collected and exploited. My works have been nourished…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Faith is like private capital, stored in one's own house. It is like a public savings bank or loan office, from which…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Certain faults are necessary for the existence of the individual. We would resent it if old friends were to get rid of…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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More by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Our foibles are really what make us lovable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Giving is the business of the rich.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I look upon all four Gospels as thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity proceeding from Jesus…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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