Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
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In comradeship is danger countered best.
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Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.
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Woe to him who would ascribe something like reason to Chance, and make a religion of surrendering to it.
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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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As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
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Der thörigste von allen Irrthümern ist, wenn junge gute Köpfe glauben, ihre Originalität zu verlieren, indem sie das Wahre anerkennen, was von andern schon anerkannt worden.
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Es ist so gewiß als wunderbar, daß Wahrheit und Irrthum aus Einer Quelle entstehen; deßwegen man oft dem Irrthum nicht schaden darf, weil man zugleich der Wahrheit schadet.
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Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving.
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Collectors are happy people.
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Modern poets add a lot of water to their ink.
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An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses.
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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.
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He who only tastes his error will long dwell with it, will take delight in it as in a singular felicity; while he who drains it to the dregs will, if he be not crazy, find it to be what it is.
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The mind is found most acute and most uneasy in the morning. Uneasiness is, indeed, a species of sagacity - a passive sagacity. Fools are never uneasy.
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If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.
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The rabble also vent their rage in words.
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With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.
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The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.
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Much there is I can stand, and most things not easy to suffer I bear with quiet resolve, just as a god commands it. Only a few I find as repugnant as snakes and poison - These four: tobacco smoke, bedbugs, garlic, and †.
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This is why we may say that those who parade piety as a purpose and an aim mostly turn into hypocrites
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Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.
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Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.