Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
-
And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
-
One says a lot in vain, refusing;The other mainly hears the 'No.'
-
The most damaging prejudice consists of banning any kind of investigation of nature.
-
Der Irrthum verhält sich gegen das Wahre wie der Schlaf gegen das Wachen. Ich habe bemerkt, daß man aus dem Irren sich wie erquickt wieder zu dem Wahren hinwende.
-
Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.
-
There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.
-
Fortunately, we can take in only so much misfortune; what exceeds that limit either destroys us or leaves us indifferent.
-
Do thine own task, and be therewith content.
-
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.
-
For usually people resist as long as they can to dismiss the fool they harbor in their bosom, they resist to confess a major mistake or to admit a truth that makes them despair.
-
A great artist... must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.
-
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.
-
Men in a state of nature, uncivilized nations, children, have a great fondness for colors in their utmost brightness, and especially for yellow-red.
-
Men are much more apt to agree in what they do than in what they think.
-
Who is the happiest man? He who is alive to the merit of others, and can rejoice in their enjoyment as if it were his own.
-
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
-
Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.
-
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.
-
All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
-
Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.
-
I must consider more closely this cycle of good and bad days which I find coursing within myself. Passion, attachment, the urge to action, inventiveness, performance, order all alternate and keep their orbit; cheerfulness, vigor, energy, flexibility and fatigue, serenity as well as desire. Nothing disturbs the cycle for I lead a simple life, but I must still find the time and order in which I rotate.
-
The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.
-
Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.
-
The little man is still a man.