Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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.
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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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The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.
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The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.
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We're really up against it, we poor women: A bachelor's a hard thing to convert.
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As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.
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Few men have imagination enough for reality.
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When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.
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Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.
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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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Thou shalt abstain, Renounce, refrain.
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To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.
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They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.
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Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.
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What sort of God would it be, who only pushed from without.
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Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.
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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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Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
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Only he who finds empiricism irksome is driven to method.
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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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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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Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
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One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.
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Beauty can never really understand itself.