Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Errors Quotations

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

It is much easier to meet with error than to find truth; error is on the surface, and can be more easily met with; truth is hid in great depths, the way to seek does not appear to all the world.

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.

He who only tastes his error will long dwell with it, will take delight in it as in a singular felicity; while he who drains it to the dregs will, if he be not crazy, find it to be what it is.

A man's errors are what make him amiable.

There are men who never err, because they never propose anything rational.

Always to distrust is an error, as well as always to trust.

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.

It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth.

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.

Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man.

I could never have known so well how paltry men are, and how little they care for really high aims, if I had not tested them by my scientific researches. Thus I saw that most men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.

The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.

Nothing is more damaging to the truth than an old error.

The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.

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?

Oh, happy he who still hopes he can emerge from Error's boundless sea! - Faust.

We rather confess our moral errors, faults, and crimes than our ignorance.

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.

The errors of the observer come from the qualities of the human mind.

The day is for mistake and error, sequence of time for success and carrying out. The one who anticipates is master of the day.

One errs as long as one strives.

A stated truth loses its grace, but a repeated error appears insipid and ridiculous.

Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth.

Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.

Errors belong to libraries; truth, to the human mind.

Most man only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.

Oh happy he who still can hope in our day to breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error! What we don't know is really what we need, and what we know is of no use to us whatever!

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.