Background Image

...

Freedom Consists Not In Refusing To Recognize Anything Above Us, But In Respecting Something Which Is Above Us; For By Respecting It, We Raise Ourselves To It, And, By Our Very Acknowledgment, Prove That We Bear Within Ourselves What Is Higher, And Are Worthy To Be On A Level With It.

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Freedom Consists Not In

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

...

Freedom Consists Not In Refusing To Recognize Anything Above Us, But In Respecting Something Which Is Above Us; For By Respecting It, We Raise Ourselves To It, And, By Our Very Acknowledgment, Prove That We Bear Within Ourselves What Is Higher, And Are Worthy To Be On A Level With It.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The World Is For Thousands A Freak Show; The Images Flicker Past And Vanish; The Impressions Remain Flat And Unconnected In The Soul. Thus They Are Easily Led By The Opinions Of Others, Are Content To Let Their Impressions Be Shuffled And Rearranged And Evaluated Differently.

Let Him Who Believes In Immortality Enjoy His Happiness In Silence; He Has No Reason To Give Himself Airs About It.

What Is Hardest Of All? That Which Seems Most Simple: To See With Your Eyes What Is Before Your Eyes.

To Live As One Likes Is Plebian The Noble Man Aspires To Order And Law.

We Can Most Safely Achieve Truly Universal Tolerance When We Respect That Which Is Characteristic In The Individual And In Nations, Clinging, Though, To The Conviction That The Truly Meritorious Is Unique By Belonging To All Of Mankind.

After All, Poets Shouldn't Be Their Own Interpreters And Shouldn't Carefully Dissect Their Poems Into Everyday Prose; That Would Mean The End Of Being Poets. Poets Send Their Creations Into The World, It Is Up To The Reader, The Aesthetician, And The Critic To Determine What They Wanted To Say With Their Creations.

Every Need Whose True Satisfaction Is Denied Leads By Necessity To Faith.

To Quit Smoking, You Must First Want To Quit, But Then You Must Also Do The Quitting

What Right Those Who Govern Have To Govern They Don't Question, They Just Govern. Whether The People Have A Right To Depose Them That Doesn't Concern Them. All They Are Concerned With Is That The People Will Not Be Tempted To Depose Them.

Time Flies, And What Is Past Is Done.

Know Thyself? If I Knew Myself I Would Run Away.

The Deed Is Everything, The Glory Is Naught.

Blood Is A Juice Of Rarest Quality. [ger., Blut Ist Ein Ganz Beondrer Saft.]

How Happy He Who Can Still Hope To Lift Himself From This Sea Of Error! What We Know Not, That We Are Anxious To Possess, And Cannot Use What We Know.

What You Have Inherited From Your Forefathers, It Takes Work To Make It Your Own.

If We Meet Someone Who Owes Us A Debt Of Gratitude, We Remember The Fact At Once. How Often We Can Meet Someone To Whom We Owe A Debt Of Gratitude Without Thinking About It At All!

The Greatest Evil That Can Befall Man Is That He Should Come To Think Ill Of Himself.

The Highest Problem Of Any Art Is To Cause By Appearance The Illusion Of A Higher Reality.

The Man Of Understanding Finds Everything Laughable.

A Great Revolution Is Never The Fault Of The People, But Of The Government.

Method Will Teach You To Win Time.

That Which Is Eternal In Woman Lifts Us Above.

The Soul Of Man Is Like To Water; From Heaven It Cometh, To Heaven It Riseth And Then Returning To Earth, Forever Alternating.

The Rabble Also Vent Their Rage In Words. [ger., Es Macht Das Volk Sich Auch Mit Worten Lust.]

Opponents Fancy They Refute Us When They Repeat Their Own Opinion And Pay No Attention To Ours.

Art Rests On A Kind Of Religious Sense, On A Deep, Steadfast Earnestness; And On This Account It Unites So Readily With Religion.

Help Me To Discover Thy Truth, O Lord, And Preserve Me From Those Who Have Already Found It

God Could Cause Us Considerable Embarrassment By Revealing All The Secrets Of Nature To Us: We Should Not Know What To Do For Sheer Apathy And Boredom.

Keeping Secrets

The Most Happy Man Is He Who Knows How To Bring Into Relation The End And Beginning Of His Life.

Beauty Vanishes; Virtue Is Lasting.

This World Could Not Exist If It Were Not So Simple. The Ground Has Been Tilled A Thousand Years, Yet Its Powers Remain Ever The Same; A Little Rain, A Little Sun, And Each Spring It Grows Green Again.

Love Is An Ideal Thing, Marriage A Real Thing

Noble Be Man, Helpful And Good!

True Happiness Springs From Moderation.

Piety Is Not A Goal But A Means To Attain Through The Purest Peace Of Mind The Highest Culture.

If You Don't Feel It, You'll Never Achieve It.

God Help Us -- For Art Is Long, And Life So Short.

Whoever Wishes To Keep A Secret Must Hide The Fact That He Possesses One.

Keeping Secrets

The Important Thing Is Not To Know More Than All Men, But To Know More At Each Moment Than Any Particular Man.

What Is Important In Life Is Life, And Not The Result Of Life.

Whatever Is The Object Of A Saint's Hope Is The Subject Of His Prayer.

The Best Government Is That Which Teaches Us To Govern Ourselves.

Yes! To This Thought I Hold With Firm Persistence; The Last Result Of Wisdom Stamps It True; He Only Earns His Freedom And Existence Who Daily Conquers Them Anew.

Piety Is Not An End, But A Means: A Means Of Attaining The Highest Culture By The Purest Tranquility Of Soul. Hence It May Be Observed That Those Who Set Up Piety As An End And Object Are Mostly Hypocrites.

Devote Each Day To The Object Then In Time And Every Evening Will Find Something Done.

What A Mighty Spirit In A Narrow Bosom. [ger., Welch' Hoher Geist In Einer Engen Brust.]

Every Man Must Form Himself As A Particular Being, Seeking, However, To Attain That General Idea Of Which All Mankind Are Constituents.

Ye Great Teachers: Listen To What You Say!

Solitude Is Fine When You Are At Peace With Yourself And Have Something Definite To Do.

All That Is Noble Is In Itself Of A Quiet Nature, And Appears To Sleep Until It Is Aroused And Summoned Forth By Contrast.

It Is Related Of An Englishman That He Hanged Himself To Avoid The Daily Task Of Dressing And Undressing.

It Is A Great Pleasure To Transport One's-self Into The Spirit Of The Times; To See How A Wise Man Has Thought Before Us, And To What A Glorious Height We Have At Last Carried It.

As In Rome There Is, Apart From The Romans, A Population Of Statues, So Apart From This Real World There Is A World Of Illusion, Almost More Potent, In Which Most Men Live.

A Man Sees In The World What He Carries In His Heart.

Names Are But Noise And Smoke, Obscuring Heavenly Light.

No, No! The Devil Is An Egotist, And Is Not Apt, Without Why Or Wherefore, "for God's Sake," Others To Assist. [ger., Nein, Nein! Der Teufel Ist Ein Egoist Und Thut Nicht Leicht Um Gottes Willen, Was Einem Andern Nutzlich Ist.]

In Politics As On A Sickbed Men Toss From Side To Side In Hope Of Lying More Comfortably.

For A Strolling Damsel A Doubtful Reputation Bears. [ger., Denn Ein Wanderndes Madchen Ist Immer Von Schwankendem Rufe.]

He Who Cannot Draw On Three Thousand Years Is Living From Hand To Mouth.

The Smallest Hair Throws Its Shadow. [ger., Das Kleinste Harr Wirft Seinen Schatten.]

I Have Found Among My Papers A Sheet . . . In Which I Call Architecture Frozen Music.

Only The Heart Without A Stain Knows Perfect Ease. [ger., Ganz Unbefleckt Geniesst Sich Nur Das Herz.]

Truth Must Be Repeated Again And Again, Because Error Is Constantly Being Preached Round About.

Again And Again

Nature Does Not Suffer Her Veil To Be Taken From Her, And What She Does Not Choose To Reveal To The Spirit, Thou Wilt Not Wrest From Her By Levers And Screws.

Never Let A Day Pass Without Looking At Some Perfect Work Of Art, Hearing Some Great Piece Of Music And Reading, In Part, Some Great Book.

Our Friends Show Us What We Can Do; Our Enemies Teach Us What We Must Do.

There Is Repetition Everywhere, And Nothing Is Found Only Once In The World.

Magic Is Believing In Yourself, If You Can Do That, You Can Make Anything Happen.

Beware Of Her Fair Hair, For She Excels All Women In The Magic Of Her Locks; And When She Winds Them Round A Young Man's Neck, She Will Not Ever Set Him Free Again.

Nothing Is More Odious Than The Majority, For It Consists Of A Few Powerful Leaders, A Certain Number Of Accommodating Scoundrels And Submissive Weaklings, And A Mass Of Men Who Trot After Them Without Thinking, Or Knowing Their Own Minds.

The Thinker Makes A Great Mistake When He Asks After Cause And Effect. They Both Together Make Up The Indivisible Phenomenon.

Every Man Has Enough Power Left To Carry Out That Of Which He Is Convinced.

Choose Well. Your Choice Is Brief, And Yet Endless.

Sing It Not In Mournful Numbers.

Nothing Is Worth More Than This Day. You Cannot Relive Yesterday. Tomorrow Is Still Beyond Your Reach.

Painting Predicates What Man Wants To See, And What Man Ought To See, Not What He Ordinarily Sees.

Children, Love One Another, And If That Is Not Possible-at Least Try To Put Up With One Another.

Love One Another

A Wife Is A Gift Bestowed Upon A Man To Reconcile Him To The Loss Of Paradise.

Life Teaches Us To Be Less Harsh With Ourselves And With Others.

I Am Certain That I Have Been Here As I Am Now A Thousand Times Before, And I Hope To Return A Thousand Times.

The World Only Goes Forward Because Of Those Who Oppose It.

All Truths Are Old, And All That We Have To Do Is Recognize And Utter Them Anew.

Zweck Sein Selbst Ist Jegliches Tier. Each Animal Is An End In Itself.

What By A Straight Path Cannot Be Reached By Crooked Ways Is Never Won.

With Knowledge Comes More Doubt.

Children, Like Dogs, Have So Sharp And Fine A Scent That They Detect And Hunt Out Everything--the Bad Before All The Rest. They Also Know Well Enough How This Or That Friend Stands With Their Parents; And As They Practice No Dissimulation Whatever, They Serve As Excellent Barometers By Which To Observe The Degree Of Favor Or Disfavor At Which We Stand With Their Parents.

Where A Man Has A Passion For Meditating Without The Capacity Of Thinking, A Particular Idea Fixes Itself Fast, And Soon Creates A Mental Disease.

You'll Never Attain It Unless You Know The Feeling.

No Limit, No Definition, May Restrict The Range Or Depth Of The Human Spirit's Passage Into Its Own Secrets Or The World's.

A Talent Is Formed In Stillness, A Character In The World's Torrent.

The Whole History Of The Christian Church Is A Mixture Of Errors And Violence.

New Inventions Can And Will Be Made; However, Nothing New Can Be Thought Of That Concerns Moral Man. Everything Has Already Been Thought And Said Which At Best We Can Express In Different Forms And Give New Expressions To.

Great Possessions And Great Want Of Them Are Both Strong Temptations.

Should I Not Be Proud, When For Twenty Years I Have Had To Admit To Myself That The Great Newton And All The Mathematicians And Noble Calculators Along With Him Were Involved In A Decisive Error With Respect To The Doctrine Of Color, And That I Among Millions Was The Only One Who Knew What Was Right In This Great Subject Of Nature?

I Wish The Crowd To Feel Itself Well Treated, Especially Since It Lives And Lets Me Live.

It Is Natural To Man To Regard Himself As The Final Cause Of Creation.

After Fifteen Minutes Nobody Looks At A Rainbow.

A Noble Soul Alone Can Noble Souls Attract; And Knows Alone, As Ye, To Hold Them.

Mysterious In The Light Of Day, Nature Retains Her Veil, Despite Our Clamours: That Which She Does Not Willingly Display Cannot Be Wrenched From Her With Levers, Screws And Hammers.

He Who Would Reproach An Author For Obscurity Should Look Into His Own Mind To See Whether It Is Quite Clear There. In The Dusk The Plainest Writing Is Illegible.

The Whole Art Of Living Consists In Giving Up Existence In Order To Exist.

One That Does Not Think To Highly Of Himself Is More Than He Thinks.

Tell Me With Whom You Associate, And I Will Tell You Who You Are.

Poor Fool! In Whose Petty Estimation All Things Are Little.

Sound And Sufficient Reason Falls, After All, To The Share Of But Few Men, And Those Few Men Exert Their Influence In Silence.

The Rose Is Wont With Pride To Swell, And Ever Seeks To Rise.

Anecdotes And Maxims Are Rich Treasures To The Man Of The World, For He Knows How To Introduce The Former At Fit Place In Conversation.

A Wounded Heart Can With Difficulty Be Cured. [ger., Doch Ein Gekranktes Herz Erholt Sich Schwer.]

Sameness Leaves Us In Peace But It Is Contradiction That Makes Us Productive.

Wherever A Man May Happen To Turn, Whatever A Man May Undertake, He Will Always End Up By Returning To That Path Which Nature Has Marked Out For Him.

It Is One Of Heaven's Best Gifts To Hold Such A Dear Creature In One's Arms.

Love Has The Tendency Of Pressing Together All The Lights - All The Rays Emitted From The Beloved Object By The Burning-glass Of Fantasy, - Into One Focus, And Making Of Them One Radiant Sun Without Any Spots.

By Seeking And Blundering We Learn.

We Can Stand Only A Certain Amount Of Unhappiness; Anything Beyond That Annihilates Us Or Passes Us By, Leaving Us Apathethetic.

There Is Nothing In Which People More Betray Their Character Than In What They Laugh At.

One Says A Lot In Vain, Refusing; The Other Mainly Hears The "no."

The Best Pleasures Of This World Are Not Quite True.

What Makes Poetry? A Full Heart, Brimful Of One Noble Passion.

To Be Sure, A Good Work Of Art Can And Will Have Moral Consequences, But To Demand Of The Artists Moral Intentions, Means Ruiningtheir Craft.

Die Zeit Ist Selbst Ein Element. Time Is Itself An Element.

The Decline In Literature Indicates A Decline In The Nation. The Two Keep Pace In Their Downward Tendency.

Whoever Makes It A Rule To Test Action By Thought, Thought By Action, Cannot Falter, And If He Does, Will Soon Find His Way Back To The Right Road.

I Have Found A Paper Of Mine Among Some Others In Which I Call Architecture 'petrified Music.' Really There Is Something In This; The Tone Of Mind Produced By Architecture Approaches The Effect Of Music.

If You Want To Make Life Easy, Make It Hard.

Tolerance Comes Of Age. I See No Fault Committed That I Myself Could Not Have Committed At Some Time Or Other.

Nine Requisites For Contented Living: Health Enough To Make Work A Pleasure. Wealth Enough To Support Your Needs. Strength To Battle With Difficulties And Overcome Them. Grace Enough To Confess Your Sins And Forsake Them. Patience Enough To Toil Until Some Good Is Accomplished. Charity Enough To See Some Good In Your Neighbor. Love Enough To Move You To Be Useful And Helpful To Others. Faith Enough To Make Real The Things Of God. Hope Enough To Remove All Anxious Fears Concerning The Future.

How Shall We Plan, That All Be Fresh And New-- Important Matter Yet Attractive Too? [ger., Wie Machen Wir's, Dass Alles Frisch Und Neu Und Mit Bedeutung Auch Gefallig Sei?]

If A Good Person Does You Wrong, Act As Though You Had Not Noticed It. If We Practice And Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth, Soon The Wholeworld Will Be Blind And Toothless.

Don't Say That You Want To Give, But Go Ahead And Give! You'll Never Catch Up With A Mere Hope.

Certain Flaws Are Necessary For The Whole. It Would Seem Strange If Old Friends Lacked Certain Quirks.

Science Arose From Poetry... When Times Change The Two Can Meet Again On A Higher Level As Friends.

Let Mental Culture Go On Advancing, Let The Natural Sciences Progress In Even Greater Extent And Depth, And The Human Mind Widen Itself As Much As It Desires: Beyond The Elevation And Moral Culture Of Christianity, As It Shines Forth In The Gospels, It Will Not Go.

No One Should Be Rich Except Those Who Understand It.

Everything In The World May Be Endured, Except Only A Succession Of Prosperous Days. [ger., Alles In Der Welt Lasst Sich Ertragen, Nur Nicht Eine Reihe Von Schonen Tagen.]

The World Of Empirical Morality Consists For The Most Part Of Nothing But Ill Will And Envy.

To Live Within Limits. To Want One Thing. Or A Few Things Very Much And Love Them Dearly. Cling To Them, Survey Them From Every Angle. Become One With Them - That Is What Makes The Poet, The Artist, The Human Being.

Science And Art Belong To The Whole World, And Before Them Vanish The Barriers Of Nationality.

Try Novelties For Salesman's Bait, For Novelty Wins Everyone.

I Never Knew A More Presumptuous Person Than Myself. The Fact That I Say That Shows That What I Say Is True.

We Talk Too Much. We Should Talk Less And Draw More.

We Are Our Own Devils; We Drive Ourselves Out Of Our Edens.

We Always Hope, And In All Things It Is Better To Hope Than To Despair.

Tell Me, How Do You Cope So Calmly With Crazy Youth's Arrogant Way? Indeed, Youth Would Be Insufferable, Had I Myself Not Also Been Insufferable.

The Use Of A Thing Is Only A Part Of Its Significance. To Know Anything Thoroughly, To Have The Full Command Of It In All Its Appliances, We Must Study It On Its Own Account, Independently Of Any Special Application.

Aptitudes Are Assumed, They Should Become Accomplishments. That Is The Purpose Of All Education.

Must It Ever Be Thus-that The Source Of Our Happiness Must Also Be The Fountain Of Our Misery? The Full And Ardent Sentiment Which Animated My Heart With The Love Of Nature, Overwhelming Me With A Torrent Of Delight, And Which Brought All Paradise Before Me, Has Now Become An Insupportable Torment, A Demon Which Perpetually Pursues And Harrasses Me.

Let's Plunge Ourselves Into The Roar Of Time, The Whirl Of Accident; May Pain And Pleasure, Success And Failure, Shift As They Will -- It's Only Action That Can Make A Man.

Every Situation--nay, Every Moment--is Of Infinite Worth; For It Is The Representative Of A Whole Eternity.

No Wonder We Are All More Or Less Pleased With Mediocrity, Since It Leaves Us At Rest, And Gives The Same Comfortable Feeling As When One Associates With His Equals.

How Can We Learn Self-knowledge? Never By Taking Thought But Rather By Action. Try To Do Your Duty And You'll Soon Discover What You're Like.

There Is Not A Single Outward Mark Of Courtesy That Does Not Have A Deep Moral Basis.

I Do Not Speak Of What I Cannot Praise.

Because Everyone Uses Language To Talk, Everyone Thinks He Can Talk About Language.

We Are Never Further From What We Wish Than When We Believe That We Have What We Wished For.

You Shall Abstain, Shall Abstain. That Is The Eternal Song.

It Is A Great Error To Take Oneself For More Than One Is, Or For Less Than One Is Worth.

Modern Poets Add A Lot Of Water To Their Ink.

The Light Is There, And Colors Surround Us. However, If There Were No Light Nor Colors In Our Own Eye, We Wouldn't Perceive Such Things Outside Of Us.

Instruction Does Much, But Encouragement Everything.

Only The Soul That Loves Is Happy

The Experiences Show Us Just As We Are; They Make Us See Our Own Defects.

Idea And Experience Will Never Coincide In The Center; Only Through Art And Action Are They United.

I Had Toward The Poetic Art A Peculiar Relation Which Was Only Practical After I Had Cherished In My Mind For A Long Time A Subject Which Possessed Me, A Model Which Inspired Me, A Predecessor Who Attracted Me, Until At Length, After I Had Molded It

I Am Certain That I Have Been Here As I Am Now A Thousand Times Before, And I Hope To Return A Thousand Times... Man Is A Dialogue Between Nature And God. On Other Planets This Dialogue Will Doubtless Be Of A Higher And Profounder Character. What Is Lacking Is Self-knowledge. After That The Rest Will Follow.

How Can You Come To Know Yourself? Never By Thinking, Always By Doing. Try To Do Your Duty, And You'll Know Right Away What You Amount To.

What Is The Destiny Of Man, But To Fill Up The Measure Of His Sufferings, And To Drink His Allotted Cup Of Bitterness?

Ill-humor Is Nothing More Than An Inward Feeling Of Our Own Want Of Merit, A Dissatisfaction With Ourselves Which Is Always United With An Envy That Foolish Vanity Excites.

The Society Of Women Is The Element Of Good Manners.

Talents Are Nurtured Best In Solitude, But Character On Life's Tempestuous Seas!

When She Sees The Leaves Fall, They Raise No Other Idea In Her Mind Than That Winter Is Approaching.

If Youth Is A Fault, It Is One That One Gets Rid Of Soon Enough.

At Bottom, No Real Object Is Unpoetical, If The Poet Knows How To Use It Properly.

Whatever Necessity Lays Upon Thee, Endure; Whatever She Commands, Do.

If We Take People Only As They Are, Then We Make Them Worse; If We Treat Them As If They Were What They Should Be, Then We Bring Them To Where They Can Be Brought.

Against Great Advantages In Another, There Are No Means Of Defending Ourselves Except Love.

Nature! We Are Enveloped And Embraced By Her, Incapable Of Emerging From Her And Incapable Of Entering Her More Deeply. Unbidden And Unwarned, She Receives Us Into The Circuits Of Her Dance, Drifting Onward With Us Herself, Until We Grow Tired And Drop From Her Arms.

If You Miss The First Buttonhole, You Will Not Succeed In Buttoning Up Your Coat.

True Happiness Springs From Moderation. [ger., Aus Massigkeit Entspringt Ein Reines Gluck.]

Everything Is Both Simpler Than We Can Imagine And More Entangled Than We Can Conceive.

For The Butterfly, Mating And Propagation Involve The Sacrifice Of Life, For The Human Being, The Sacrifice Of Beauty.

It Is Not Doing The Thing We Like To Do, But Liking The Thing We Have To Do, That Makes Life Blessed.

It Is As Certain As It Is Strange That Truth And Error Come From One And The Same Source. Thus It Is That We Are Often Not At Liberty To Do Violence To Error, Because At The Same Time We Do Violence To Truth.

For Just When Ideas Fail, A Word Comes In To Save The Situation.

Few Men Have Imagination Enough For Reality.

Those Who Make Use Of Devotion As A Means And End Generally Are Hypocrites.

A Well-bred Carriage Is Difficult To Imitate; For In Strictness It Is Negative, And It Implies A Long-continued Previous Training.

Mastery Is Often Taken For Egotism.

Every Day Look At A Beautiful Picture, Read A Beautiful Poem, Listen To Some Beautiful Music, And If Possible, Say Some Reasonable Thing.

Alas! How Much There Is In Education, And In Our Social Institutions, To Prepare Us And Our Children For Insanity.

All That Is Transitory Is But A Metaphor.

Love, Whose Power Youth Feels, Is Not Suitable For The Elderly, Just As Little As Anything That Presupposes Productivity. It Is Rare That Productivity Lasts Through The Years.

So Dear Night The Half Of Life Is, And The Fairest Half Indeed.

A Noble Person Attracts Noble People, And Knows How To Hold On To Them.

There Is No Past We Can Bring Back By Longing For It. There Is Only An Eternal Now That Builds And Creates Out Of The Past Something New And Better.

Behavior Is A Mirror In Which Every One Shows His Image. [ger., Das Betragen Ist Ein Spiegel In Welchem Jeder Sein Bild Zeigt.]

The Most Fortunate Of Men, Be He A King Or Commoner, Is He Whose Welfare Is Assured In His Own Home.

Against Criticism A Man Can Neither Protest Nor Defend Himself; He Must Act In Spite Of It, And Then It Will Gradually Yield To Him.

Without My Attempts In Natural Science, I Should Never Have Learned To Know Mankind Such As It Is. In Nothing Else Can We So Closely Approach Pure Contemplation And Thought, So Closely Observe The Errors Of The Senses And Of The Understanding, The Weak And Strong Points Of Character.

Great Endowments Often Announce Themselves In Youth In The Form Of Singularity And Awkwardness.

If One Mistreats Citizens Of Foreign Countries, One Infringes Upon One's Duty Toward One's Own Subjects; For Thus One Exposes Themto The Law Of Retribution.

Trending Author

Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Francesca Lia Block

Category