Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.
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Rash, inexperienced youth holds itself a chosen instrument, and allows itself unbounded license.
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Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution.
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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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Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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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.
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You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
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People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.
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One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
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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.
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For that is love's nature that it lays claim to exclusive right and that all other claims are nil.
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We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.
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The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.
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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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One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.
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If society gives up the right to impose the death penalty, then self-help will appear again and personal vendettas will be around the corner.
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Our foibles are really what make us lovable.
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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
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Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.
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One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.
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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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If we are out of synch with ourselves, everything is out of synch for us.
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Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking.