Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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What is predestination? Answer: God is more powerful and wiser than we are, therefore he deals with us according to his pleasure.
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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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Give me those days with heart in riot, The depths of bliss that touched on pain, The force of hate, and love's disquiet- Ah, give me back my youth again!
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Ah! my poor brain is racked and crazed, My spirit and senses amazed!
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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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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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The mortal race is far too weak not to grow dizzy on unwonted brights.
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The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.
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Quite often, as life goes on, when we feel completely secure as we go on our way, we suddenly notice that we are trapped in error, that we have allowed ourselves to be taken in by individuals, by objects, have dreamt up an affinity with them which immediately vanishes before our waking eye; and yet we cannot tear ourselves away, held fast by some power that seems incomprehensible to us. Sometimes, however, we become fully aware and realize that error as well as truth can move and spur us on to action.
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Thou shalt abstain, Renounce, refrain.
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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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My counsel is, to force nothing, and rather to trifle and sleep away all unproductive days and hours, than on such days to compose something that will afterwards give no pleasure.
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Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.
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Art is based on a strong sentiment of religion,--on a profound and mighty earnestness; hence it is so prone to co-operate with religion.
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Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
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Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.
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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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I always seek the good that is in people and leave the bad to Him who made mankind and knows how to round off the corners.
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Duration in change.
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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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Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.
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The universal subjugator, the commonplace.
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As great, everlasting, Adamantine laws Dictate, we must all Complete the cycles Of our existence.
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If you have science and art, You also have religion; But if you don't have them, You better have religion.