Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.
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Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.
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Let your trouble be Light will follow dark Though the heaven falls You may hear the lark.
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Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations.
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Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving.
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Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love.
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He who only tastes his error will long dwell with it, will take delight in it as in a singular felicity; while he who drains it to the dregs will, if he be not crazy, find it to be what it is.
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To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
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No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod.
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The modern age has a false sense of superiority, because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.
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I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.
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The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.
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The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.
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Wishes are premonitions of abilities.
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Every form correctly seen is beautiful.
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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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Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.
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Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
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Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.
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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.
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If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
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Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not to-day; Still forward press, nor never tire! The possible, with steadfast trust, Resolve should be by the forelock grasp. Then she will ne'er let go her clasp, And labors on, because she must.
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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.