Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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We should know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another.
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None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
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On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.
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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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If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.
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Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.
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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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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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Always to distrust is an error, as well as always to trust.
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It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.
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You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.
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The day is for mistake and error, sequence of time for success and carrying out. The one who anticipates is master of the day.
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Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
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Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis between receiving and giving.
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In all things, to serve from the lowest station upwards is necessary. To restrict yourself to a trade is best. For the narrow mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade; for the higher, an art; and the highest in doing one thing does all, or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one thing which he does rightly he sees the likeness of all that is done rightly.
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One never learns to understand truly anything but what one loves.
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He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.
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If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.
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The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself! What man in the world would not find his situation intolerable if he chooses a craft, an art, indeed any form of life, without experiencing an inner calling? Whoever is born with a talent, or to a talent, must surely find in that the most pleasing of occupations! Everything on this earth has its difficult sides! Only some inner drive - pleasure, love - can help us overcome obstacles, prepare a path, and lift as out of the narrow circle in which others tread out their anguished, miserable existences!
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Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
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As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.
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Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is; and old men lose one of the most precious rights of man,--that of being judged by their peers.
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Every man bears something within him that, if it were publicly announced, would excite feelings of aversion.