Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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We talk too much. We should talk less and draw more.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.
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The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
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We cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
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Everything in science depends on what one calls an aperch, on becoming aware of what is at the bottom of the phenomena. Such becoming aware is infinitely fertile.
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A noble soul alone can noble souls attract; And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.
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To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
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There is no remedy but love for the great superiority of others.
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Shakespeare is dangerous to young poets; they cannot but reproduce him, while they fancy that they produce themselves.
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Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew.
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The soul-stirring image of death is no bugbear to the sage, and is looked on without despair by the pious. It teaches the former to live, and it strengthens the hopes of the latter in salvation in the midst of distress. Death is new life to both.
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself.
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Passions are defects or virtues in the highest power.
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I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live.
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And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.
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Stupidity is without anxiety.
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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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People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were.
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If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the person of Christ.
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Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.
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Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper.
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There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.