Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.
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If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.
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On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
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Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.
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We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies.
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Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic.
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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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Smoothly and lightly the golden seed by the furrow is covered.
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The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
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What is predestination? Answer: God is more powerful and wiser than we are, therefore he deals with us according to his pleasure.
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That which is eternal in Woman lifts us above.
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A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.
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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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Of the truly creative no one is ever master; it must be left to go its own way.
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In all times it is only individuals that have advanced science, not the age.
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We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.
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He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.
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This is what they all come to who exclusively harp on experience. They do not stop to consider that experience is only one half of experience.
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Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.
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Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.
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Several classical sayings that one likes to repeat had quite a different meaning from the ones later times attributed to them.
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Doubt can only be removed by action.
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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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Let your trouble be Light will follow dark Though the heaven falls You may hear the lark.