The errors of a man are what make him really lovable.

It is no wonder that we all more or less delight in the mediocre, because it leaves us in peace: it gives us the comfortable feeling of intercourse with what is like ourselves.

Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.

By nothing do men show their character more than by the things they laugh at.

It may well be that a man is at times horribly threshed by misfortunes, public and private: but the reckless flail of Fate, when it beats the rich sheaves, crushes only the straw; and the corn feels nothing of it and dances merrily on the floor, careless whether its way is to the mill or the furrow.

No one is more of a slave than he who thinks himself free without being so.

Fools and wise-folk are alike harmless. It is the half-wise, and the half-foolish, who are the most dangerous.

That is true Symbolism, where the more particular represents the more general, not as a dream or a shade, but as a vivid, instantaneous revelation of the Inscrutable.

An intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous.

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.

Our passions are, in truth, like the phoenix. When the old one burns away, the new one rises out of its ashes at once.

We are fond of looking to the future, because our secret wishes make us apt to turn in our favour the uncertainties which move about in it hither and thither.

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Every man can have his own peculiar truth; and yet it is always the same.

A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for the sake of them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up.

No one would speak much in society if he were aware how often we misunderstand others.

Beauty and Genius must be kept afar if one would avoid becoming their slave.

Men's prejudices rest upon their character for the time being and cannot be overcome, as being part and parcel of themselves. Neither evidence nor common sense nor reason has the slightest influence upon them.

There is no greater consolation for mediocrity than that the genius is not immortal.

The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.

We are never further from our wishes than when we fancy we possess the object of them.

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

Great passions are hopeless diseases. That which could cure them is the first thing to make them really dangerous.

People often say to themselves in life that they should avoid a variety of occupation, and, more particularly, be the less willing to enter upon new work the older they grow. But it is easy to talk, easy to give advice to oneself and others. To grow old is itself to enter upon a new business; all the circumstances change, and a man must either cease acting altogether, or willingly and consciously take over the new rôle.

If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself.

Error is related to truth as sleep to waking. I have observed that on awakening from error a man turns again to truth as with new vigour.

At all times it has not been the age, but individuals alone, who have worked for knowledge. It was the age which put Socrates to death by poison, the age which burnt Huss. The ages have always remained alike.

To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.

As a coal is revived by incense, so prayer revives the hopes of the heart.

The true is Godlike: we do not see it itself; we must guess at it through its manifestations.

When prudence is only fear in disguise, its scruples cannot be conquered.

If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to transgress them.

A man's manners are the mirror in which he shows his portrait.

With knowledge grows doubt.

The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.

The real scholar learns how to evolve the unknown from the known, and draws near the master.

Every reader reads himself out of the book that he reads; nay, has he a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with the author's.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, "First Epistle", Epistles

Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it.

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