Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The universal subjugator, the commonplace.
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Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it.
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A great scholar is seldom a great philosopher.
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Art rests on a kind of religious sense, on a deep, steadfast earnestness; and on this account it unites so readily with religion.
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He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.
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The master proves himselin recognizing his limitations.
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A purpose you impart is no longer your own.
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What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.
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Poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men.
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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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The happiest man is the one who finds happiness at home.
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No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.
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Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
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Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
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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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The fine emotions whence our lives we mold Lie in the earthly tumult dumb and cold.
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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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Someone criticized an elderly man for wooing young women. He replied that that was the only way to rejuvenation, which was, afterall, everybody's wish.
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The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value.
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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.
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You must be either the servant or the master, the hammer or the anvil.
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How circumscribed is woman's destiny!
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Who is the happiest man? He who is alive to the merit of others, and can rejoice in their enjoyment as if it were his own.
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Voluntary dependence is the wonderful form of existence, and how could that be possible without love?