Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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In comradeship is danger countered best.
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Art is in itself noble; that is why the artist has no fear of what is common. This, indeed, is already ennobled when he takes it up.
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The flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away and leave no trace behind! How few yield any fruit,--and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough; and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed?
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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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Our foibles are really what make us lovable.
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Each one of us must carry within the proof of immortality, it cannot be given from outside of us. To be sure, everything in natureis change but behind the change there is something eternal.
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Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.
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I have never looked at foreign countries or gone there but with the purpose of getting to know the general human qualities that are spread all over the earth in very different forms, and then to find these qualities again in my own country and to recognize and to further them.
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Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
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Fret not over the irretrievable, but ever act as if thy life were just begun.
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The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.
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Man can find no better retreat from the world than art, and man can find no stronger link with the world than art.
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Perseverance is a silent power that grows irresistibly greater with time.
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Ah! my poor brain is racked and crazed, My spirit and senses amazed!
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The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.
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Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.
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Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee, Then were it worth one's while a man to be.
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A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
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He is happy as well as great who needs neither to obey nor to command in order to be something.
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Look at a man the way he is and he only becomes worse, but look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be.
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Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
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Over all the mountain tops is peace. In all treetops you perceive scarcely a breath. The little birds in the forest are silent. Wait then; soon, you too, will have peace.
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Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.