Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

What we already know frames what we see, and what we see frames what we understand.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

Conclusive facts are inseparable from inconclusive except by a head that already understands and knows.

You don't know, but I'm noticing.

You cannot be known Better than I know you.

It might be good to open our eyes and see.

There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing.

What men have seen they know. . . .

An object is frequently not seen, from not knowing how to see it, rather than from any defect of the organ of vision.

If you have it and you know you have it, then you have it. If you have it and don't know you have it, you don't have it. If you don't have it but you think you have it, then you have it.

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

Knowledge, may it be said, is higher than magic and is more to be sought. It is quite possible to see what is happening and yet not know what is forward, for while seeing is believing, it does not follow that either seeing or believing is knowing.

People generally pay attention to what they already know about and what they care about.

So everything that ever happened, we knew about in Panama.

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.

If you don't know about it, you can't get it.

The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.

He who closes his eyes sees nothing, even in the full light of day.

Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.

You can't do anything sensible until you know what the situation is that you're in.

When you're sent something and read it, either you can see it while you read it, or you can't.

A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know.