Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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.
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Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want.
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Forget not that the man who cannot enjoy his own natural gifts in silence, and find his reward in the exercise of them, will generally find himself badly off.
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Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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This is what they all come to who exclusively harp on experience. They do not stop to consider that experience is only one half of experience.
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All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
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No one knows what he is doing so long as he is acting rightly; but of what is wrong one is always conscious.
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No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.
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In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.
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How circumscribed is woman's destiny!
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A purpose you impart is no longer your own.
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Do you want to live happily? Travel with two bags, one for giving, the other for receiving.
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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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The mortal race is far too weak not to grow dizzy on unwonted brights.
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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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The highest happiness, the purest joys of life, wear out at last.
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Voluntary dependence is the wonderful form of existence, and how could that be possible without love?
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Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.
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Experience is only half of experience.
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He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure.
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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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It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
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To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.