Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Ich singe, wie der Vogel singtDer in den Zweigen wohnet.
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Try novelties for salesman's bait, For novelty wins everyone.
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The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.
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A noble man is led by woman's gentle words.
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Everything that we encounter leaves traces behind. Everything contributes imperceptibly to our education.
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Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution.
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Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth.
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I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven planets, revolving round the sun, than the first among five moons revolving round Saturn.
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All perishable is but an allegory.
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Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
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Why should we not recognize in the lightning, the thunder, and the storm wind, the approach of an overwhelming Power, and in the scent of flowers and the gently rustling zephyr the presence of a Being full of love?
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The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
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The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.
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The poet should seize the Particular, and he should, if there be anything sound in it, thus represent the Universal.
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It is a great pleasure to transport one's-self into the spirit of the times; to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.
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Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
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Investigate what is, and not what pleases.
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Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears.
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What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.
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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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Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.
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What is fruitful alone is true.
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Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.
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As our inclinations, so our opinions.