Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
The important thing is not to know more than all men, but to know more at each moment than any particular man. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
What is the universal? The single case. What is the particular? Millions of cases. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share
Where a man has a passion for meditating without the capacity of thinking, a particular idea fixes itself fast, and soon creates… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
