Liam > Liam's Quotes

“Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“nothing puts me so completely out of patience
as the utterance of a wretched commonplace
when I am talking from my inmost heart.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Colors are the deeds/ and sufferings of light.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The more one knows, the more one comprehends, the more one realizes that everything turns in a circle.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity”
― Goethe

“If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

“Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part

“It is better to do the smallest thing in the world than to hold half an hour to be too small a thing.”
― Johann wolfgang von Goethe

“Yes - this I hold to with devout insistence,
Wisdom's last verdict goes to say:
He only earns both freedom and existence
Who must reconquer them each day.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust

“Indeed, I am nothing but a wanderer and a pilgrim on this earth! And what more are you?”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Distrust all those in whom the urge to punish is strong.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Colors are light's suffering and joy”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“One should not search for anything behind the phenomena. They themselves are the message.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I myself must also say I believe it is true that in the end humanitarianism will triumph; only I fear that at the same time the world will be one big hospital and each person will be the other person's humane keeper.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey

“Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. The man incapable of appreciating her, she despises; and only to the apt, the pure, and the true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Conversations of Goethe

“Truth is contrary to our nature, not so error, and this for a very simple reason: truth demands that we should recognize ourselves as limited, error flatters us that, in one way or another, we are unlimited.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I am contented, happy, and consequently a bad historian.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Naturalists tell of a noble race of horses that instinctively open a vein with their teeth, when heated and exhausted by a long course, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein, to procure for myself everlasting liberty.

Cento volte ho impugnato una lama per conficcarmela nel cuore. Si dice di una nobile razza i cavalli,che quando si sentono accaldati e affaticati, si aprono istintivamente una vena, per respirare più liberamente. Spesso anche io vorrei aprirmi una vena che mi desse libertà eterna.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“Real obscurantism is not to hinder the spread of what is true, clear, and useful, but to bring into vogue what is false.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

“What I have lately said of painting is equally true with respect to poetry. It is only necessary for us to know what is really excellent, and venture to give it expression; and that is saying much in few words. To-day I have had a scene, which, if literally related, would, make the most beautiful idyl in the world. But why should I talk of poetry and scenes and idyls? Can we never take pleasure in nature without having recourse to art?”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.”
― Goethe

“Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”
― Jean Jacques Rousseau

“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education

“It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Confessions