Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
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There is but one poetry-true poetry.
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Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.
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The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.
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Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap.
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Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.
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Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, in fear of getting burned.
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It will be! the mass is working clearer! Conviction gathers, truer, nearer! The mystery which for Man in Nature lies We dare to test, by knowledge led; And that which she was wont to organize We crystallize, instead.
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He who cannot love must learn to flatter.
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I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.
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Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.
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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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Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.
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A purpose you impart is no longer your own.
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If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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Some of our weaknesses are born in us, others are the result of education; it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble.
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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.
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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.
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Great possessions and great want of them are both strong temptations.
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A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.
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Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.
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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
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The wealth that cannot be administered is a burden.