Boundless in your charity, but shrewd and cautious as a lender, you delight all those today whom you made beggars the day before.
From a distance the rushing of the torrent delights and uplifts us, but it rocks us in a flimsy boat, we are overwhelmed by despair. The same applies to danger.
How great seems human progress when we consider where it began, and how insignificant, when we contemplate the goals for which itstrives.
Let no one say that taking action is hard. Action is aided by courage, by the moment, by impulse, and the hardest thing in the world is making a decision.
Never expect any recognition here – the system prohibits it. The cross is not affixed to the genius, no, the genius is affixed to the cross.
Lap-dogs and blood-hounds enjoy the greatest respect at court; house-dogs and no dogs at all are not even considered.
You ardently strive for freedom, and I do wish you were free – but, rather than for your sake, so that government won’t be.
Robespierre, this pedant of freedom!
Schiller moves upward. Goethe comes from up above.
Man will return to his origins. Goethe has finally become as squiggly as the city of his fathers.
Strength, strength alone, is honorable, the German nation clamors in its majesty. But since it is hard to muster strength so suddenly, they have to make do with boorishness.
In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.
Uneducated people are unfortunate in that they do grasp complex issues, educated people, on the other hand, often do not understand simplicity, which is a far greater misfortune.
It’s actually the spirit helping the spirit; it is the doctor, the bed, the potion.
Nothing genuinely historical was ever lost in this country. For this reason we have two ruling parties: villains and fools.
The noble woman is half a man, even a complete one. Only their imperfections make them women.
To test a modest man’s modesty do not investigate if he ignores applause, find out if he abides criticism.
Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.
Love wants to be confirmed with concrete symbols, but recklessness loves instability.
You say I’m small? I certainly can relate, although it is a matter of perspective. The distance is deceptive, my friend, you standtoo low.