Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden.
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A violet on the meadow grew, That no one saw, that no one knew, It was a modest flower. A shepherdess pass'd by that way. Light footed, pretty and so gay; That way she came, Softly warbling forth her lay.
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Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny.
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To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.
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Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon, and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us; and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.
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The brilliant passes, like the dew at morn; The true endures, for ages yet unborn.
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The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.
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When you see some evil you proceed to immediate action, you make an immediate attack to cure the symptom.
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The child, offered the mother's breast, Will not in the beginning grab it; But soon it clings to it with zest. And thus at wisdom's copious breasts You'll drink each day with greater zest.
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Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
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The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannotbe explored.
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Love does not rule; but it trains, and that is more.
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I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.
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Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.
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To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.
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A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.
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The most difficult thing is what is thought to be the simplest; to really see the things which are before your eyes.
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Sceptics are yet the most credulous.
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Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round a building during the course of construction, and which are taken away as soon as the edifice is completed.
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Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.
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Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.
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Modern poets add a lot of water to their ink.
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What chance gathers, she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.
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If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.