Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes on Justice
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was not a systematic theorist of justice, and the quotes gathered here approach the theme obliquely, through his concern with moral order, proportion, and right measure. Goethe held that even small social forms carry moral weight, observing that there is no outward mark of politeness without a profound moral reason, and that a sound education would teach the outward sign and its moral ground together. His eye for fitness and proportion appears in the maxim that a building must stand on the right spot, be securely founded, and be successfully executed, principles of right ordering that reach beyond architecture. He also noted, with characteristic irony, how easily eloquence rather than justice wins an argument. Drawn from his novels, maxims, and Faust, these passages present Goethe weighing conduct in terms of moral fitness and measure.
Quotes
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“There is no outward mark of politeness that does not have a profound moral reason. The right education would be that which taught the outward mark and the moral reason together.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. II, Ch. 5, R. J. Hollingdale , trans. (1971), p. 195 -
“Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though she were still in love.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 246, trans. Stopp -
“There's nothing clever that hasn't been thought of before — you've just got to try to think it all over again.”
Maxims and Reflections(1833) | Maxim 441, trans. Stopp Variant translation: All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again. -
“Variant translation: He who maintains he's right—if his the gift of tongues— Will have the last word certainly.”
Faust, Part 1(1808) | Faust and Gretchen. A Street -
“Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it be securely founded; that it be successfully executed.”
Elective Affinities(1809) | Bk. I, Ch. 9 -
“Once a man's thirty, he's already old, He is indeed as good as dead. It's best to kill him right away.”
Faust, Part 2(1832) | Act II, The Gothic Chamber