Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows his image.
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There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.
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The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.
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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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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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When you see some evil you proceed to immediate action, you make an immediate attack to cure the symptom.
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Piety, like nobility, has its aristocracy.
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Where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest.
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A noble man is led by woman's gentle words.
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In der Kunst ist das Beste gut genug.
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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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A king there was once reigning, Who had a goodly flea, Him loved he without feigning, As his own son were he!
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People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.
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How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.
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Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.
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Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores and sinners, seeing I go in for that myself.
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And step by step, along the path of life, There's nothing true but Heaven.
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Rash combat oft immortalizes man; if he should fall, he is renowned in song; but after-ages reckon not the ceaseless tears which the forsaken woman sheds. Poets tell us not of the many nights consumed in weeping, or of the dreary days wherein her anguished soul vainly yearns to call her loved one back.
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It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.
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What man does not know, Or has not thought of, Wanders in the night Through the labyrinth of the mind.
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If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
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As all Nature's thousands changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art's wide kingdom ranges One sole meaning still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene through time and season Stands aye in loveliness.
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Die Kunst an und für sich selbst ist edel; deßhalb fürchtet sich der Künstler nicht vor dem Gemeinen. Ja indem er es aufnimmt, ist es schon geadelt, und so sehen wir die größten Künstler mit Kühnheit ihr Majestätsrecht ausüben.
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Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.