Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
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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.
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Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
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Amerika, du hast es besser-als unser Kontinent, der alte.
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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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A leaf that is destined to grow large is full of grooves and wrinkles at the start. Now if one has no patience and wants it smooth offhand like a willow leaf, there is trouble ahead.
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True art can only spring from the intimate linking of the serious and the playful.
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Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose.
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Traveling is like gambling: it is always connected with winning and losing and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for.
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Investigate what is, and not what pleases.
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Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind. I grasped a lovely masked procession, And caught things from a horror show… I’d gladly settle for a false impression, If it would last a little longer, though.
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
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What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in abundance.
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A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.
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Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
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The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
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Every form correctly seen is beautiful.
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It matters little whether a man be mathematically or philologically or artistically cultivated, so he be but cultivated.
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Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!
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Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.
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It is in human nature to relax, when not compelled by personal advantage or disadvantage.
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But when all is said, the greatest art is to limit and isolate oneself.
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Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.