Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were.
-
The thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature; it works on from eternity to eternity, it is like the sun, which though it seems to set to our mortal eyes, does not really set, but shines on perpetually.
-
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.
-
All poetry is supposed to be instructive but in an unnoticeable manner; it is supposed to make us aware of what it would be valuable to instruct ourselves in; we must deduce the lesson on our own, just as with life.
-
He is happy as well as great who needs neither to obey nor to command in order to be something.
-
We accept every person in the world as that for which he gives himself out, only he must give himself out for something. We can put up with the unpleasant more easily than we can endure the insignificant.
-
The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.
-
The universal subjugator, the commonplace.
-
The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.
-
It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of us, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true.
-
A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.
-
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.
-
Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.
-
A man would create another man if one did not already exist, but a woman might live an eternity without even thinking of reproducing her own sex.
-
Perseverance is a silent power that grows irresistibly greater with time.
-
The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.
-
Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.
-
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
-
The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.
-
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.
-
Ah! my poor brain is racked and crazed, My spirit and senses amazed!
-
A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.
-
Art will always be art.
-
People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.