Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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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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He who is firm in will molds the world to himself. [Ger., Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.]
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Life is but a preparation for what there is to come.
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What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit; Whats genuine, shall posterity inherit.
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Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.
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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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Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking.
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Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity.
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Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
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Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.
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If in the infinite you want to stride, Just walk in the finite to every side.
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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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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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Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.
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Stupidity is without anxiety.
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Those who have no hope for a future life are already dead for the present one.
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How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!
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Great possessions and great want of them are both strong temptations.
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The coward only threatens when he is safe.
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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
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A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.
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Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.