Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
Bin ich ein Gott? Mir wird so licht!
-
Time flies, and what is past is done.
-
None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.
-
Much there is I can stand, and most things not easy to suffer I bear with quiet resolve, just as a god commands it. Only a few I find as repugnant as snakes and poison - These four: tobacco smoke, bedbugs, garlic, and †.
-
Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.
-
We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.
-
I do not speak of what I cannot praise.
-
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
-
Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.
-
A useless life is an early death.
-
The best way to understand a painting is by drawing it.
-
The bed of flowers Loosens amain, The beauteous snowdrops Droop o'er the plain. The crocus opens Its glowing bud, Like emeralds others, Others, like blood. With saucy gesture Primroses flare, And roguish violets, Hidden with care; And whatsoever There stirs and strives, The Spring's contented, If works and thrives.
-
When you are in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.
-
The century is advanced, but every individual begins afresh.
-
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
-
We can really respect a man only if he doesn't always look out for himself.
-
Art is based on a strong sentiment of religion,--on a profound and mighty earnestness; hence it is so prone to co-operate with religion.
-
The greatest act of faith takes place when a man finally decides that he is not God.
-
To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
-
Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.
-
Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations.
-
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.
-
The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.
-
Every situation--nay, every moment--is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.