Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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One can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.
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From inaccessible mountain range by way of desert untrod by human foot to the ends of the unknown seas, the breath of the everlasting creative spirit is felt, rejoicing over every speck of dust that hearkens to it and lives.
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I make presents to the mother but think of the daughter.
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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.
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Very few people love others for what they are; rather, they love what they lend them, their own selves, their own idea of them.
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Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.
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Over all the mountain tops is peace.
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In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.
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Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis between receiving and giving.
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Men are much more apt to agree in what they do than in what they think.
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Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.
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Es gibt kein äußeres Zeichen der Höflichkeit, das nicht einen tiefen sittlichen Grund hätte. Die rechte Erziehung wäre, welche dieses Zeichen und den Grund zugleich überlieferte.
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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
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Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
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To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability.
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To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.
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The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
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What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.
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One's roused by this, another finds that fit: Each loves the play for what he brings to it.
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The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterized by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naivete.
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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.
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All our knowledge is symbolic.
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Every great idea exerts, on first appearing, a tyrannical influence: Hence, the advantages it brings are turned all too soon into disadvantages.
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Great possessions and great want of them are both strong temptations.