Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Hold your powers together for something good and let everything go that is for you without result and is not suited to you.
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No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.
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It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of us, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true.
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The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.
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Any trifle is enough to entertain two lovers.
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Few men have imagination enough for reality.
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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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The desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity.
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Let no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each one perfect in himself.
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Only he who finds empiricism irksome is driven to method.
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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 church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.
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Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.
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Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.
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No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
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The man of understanding finds everything laughable.
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The worst is that the very hardest thinking will not bring thoughts. They must come like good children of God and cry, "Here we are." You expend effort and energy thinking hard. Then, after you have given up, they come sauntering in with their hands in their pockets. If the effort had not been made to open the door, however, who knows when they could have come.
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What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown.
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Fortunately, we can take in only so much misfortune; what exceeds that limit either destroys us or leaves us indifferent.
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They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.
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One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.
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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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Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.