Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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A state of true and universal tolerance is best ensured by leaving alone the peculiarities of men and peoples.
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The useful may be trusted to further itself, for many produce it and no one can do without it; but the beautiful must be specially encouraged, for few can present it, while yet all have need of it.
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So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more, thank God! to its most charming chapter. The violets and the Mayflowers are as its inscriptions or vignettes. It always makes a pleasant impression on us, when we open again at these pages of the book of life.
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What chance gathers, she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.
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One says a lot in vain, refusing;The other mainly hears the 'No.'
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Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them.
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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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A good person, striving dimly, Is well aware of the right path.
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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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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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It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been empty.
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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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Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores and sinners, seeing I go in for that myself.
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Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.
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People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.
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We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.
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Culture which smooth the whole world licks, Also unto the devil sticks.
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Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
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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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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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Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.
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Faith is like private capital, stored in one's own house. It is like a public savings bank or loan office, from which individuals receive assistance in their days of need; but here the creditor quietly takes his interest for himself.
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Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.