Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.
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Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations.
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All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
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What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.
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Try novelties for salesman's bait, For novelty wins everyone.
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Seeking with the soul the land of the Greeks.
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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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If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.
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Character calls forth character.
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The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.
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Everything in science depends on what one calls an aperch, on becoming aware of what is at the bottom of the phenomena. Such becoming aware is infinitely fertile.
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It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been empty.
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Oh happy he who still can hope in our day to breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error! What we don't know is really what we need, and what we know is of no use to us whatever!
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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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A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
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Lose the day loitering, 'twill be the same story To-morrow, and the next more dilatory, For indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you can do, or think you can, begin it! Only engage, and then the mind grows heated; Begin it, and the work will be completed.
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Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
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Where there is much light, the shadows are deepest. [Ger., Wo viel Licht is, ist starker Schatten.]
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Writing is busy idleness.
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If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.
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A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.
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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.