Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
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Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.
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To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
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The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
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The art of living rightly is like all arts; it must be learned and practiced with incessant care.
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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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Character - in things great and small - is indicated when a man (or person) pursues with sustained follow-through what he feels himself capable of doing.
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A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.
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Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
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A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
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I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times... Man is a dialogue between nature and God. On other planets this dialogue will doubtless be of a higher and profounder character. What is lacking is Self-Knowledge. After that the rest will follow.
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No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.
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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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There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
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There is no greater consolation for mediocrity than that the genius is not immortal.
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Any trifle is enough to entertain two lovers.
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We love a girl for very different qualities than understanding. We love her for her beauty, her youth, her mirth, her confidingness, her character, with its faults, caprices and God knows what other inexpressible charms; but we do not love her understanding.
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The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.
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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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If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
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As great, everlasting, Adamantine laws Dictate, we must all Complete the cycles Of our existence.
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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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Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.
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And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.