Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown.
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We can offer up much in the large, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom equal to.
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Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.
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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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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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Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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What I possess I would gladly retain. Change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits.
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There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).
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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.
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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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For the butterfly, mating and propagation involve the sacrifice of life, for the human being, the sacrifice of beauty.
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Nature goes her own way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
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Whoever aspiring, struggles on, for him there is salvation.
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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
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The trouble is small, the fun is great.
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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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People may live as much retired from the world as they please; but sooner or later, before they are aware, they will find themselves debtor or creditor to somebody.
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On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.
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The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.
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We are our own aptest deceiver.
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The man of understanding finds everything laughable.
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The most damaging prejudice consists of banning any kind of investigation of nature.
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The spirit from which we act is the principal matter.