Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.

Superstitions are man's way of trying to control things he has no control over.

the greatest American superstition was belief in facts.

Primitive superstition lies just below the surface of even the most tough-minded individuals, and it is precisely those who most fight against it who are the first to succumb to its suggestive effects.

Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism.

I think superstition has a lot to do with fear: the less, the better.

Superstition is a part of the very being of humanity; and when we fancy that we are banishing it altogether, it takes refuge in the strangest nooks and corners, and then suddenly comes forth again, as soon as it believes itself at all safe.

Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.

One of the greatest superstitions of our time is the belief that it has none.

Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.

In all superstition wise men follow fools.

The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.

Superstition is the need to view the world in terms of simple cause and effect.

I had hoped that out of so many stories you would at least have produced one or two, which could hardly be questioned, and which would clearly show that ghosts or spectres exist. The case you relate... seems to me laughable. In like manner it would be tedious here to examine all the stories of people, who have written on these trifles. To be brief, I cite the instance of Julius Caesar, who, as Suetonius testifies, laughed at such things and yet was happy. ...And so should all who reflect on the human imagination, and the effects of the emotions, laugh at such notions

Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by using a magnet.

The superstition in which we were brought up never loses its power over us, even after we understand it.

I am not a nervous man in a general way, and very little troubled with superstitions, of which I have lived to see the folly.

Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.

Nothing in all the world is so nonsensical and contradictory, save mortals, that is, who live in the grip of the superstitions of the past.

Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.

One of my superstitions is I'm not allowed to talk about them.

So strong is the power of superstition that even though we know that we have been reverencing a sham, yet still we hesitate to admit the validity of our new-found convictions.

There is superstition in avoiding superstition.

Superstition is but the fear of belief.

My mind is just as open as it ever was, professor. But it's a scientific mind, and there's no place in it for superstitions.