Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Hatred is partial, but love is still more so.
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He who is firm and resolute in will molds the world to himself.
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One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn't every nationhave its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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I do not now begin, - I still adore Her whom I early cherish'd in my breast; Then once again with prudence dispossess'd, And to whose heart I'm driven back once more. The love of Petrarch, that all-glorious love, Was unrequited, and, alas, full sad.
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He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.
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To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.
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Translators are like busy match-makers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty, and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.
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What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
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You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
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Our foibles are really what make us lovable.
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One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.
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Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.
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It is working within limits that the craftsman reveals himself.
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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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Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.
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Painting predicates what man wants to see, and what man ought to see, not what he ordinarily sees.
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Men in a state of nature, uncivilized nations, children, have a great fondness for colors in their utmost brightness, and especially for yellow-red.
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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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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.
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Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking.
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Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
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We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.
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We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.