Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Theories are usually the over-hasty efforts of an impatient understanding that would gladly be rid of phenomena, and so puts in their place pictures, notions, nay, often mere words.
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The trouble is small, the fun is great.
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If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.
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If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question.
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Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
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Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.
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If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.
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Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them.
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Let no one be ashamed to say yes today if yesterday he said no. Or to say no today if yesterday he said yes. For that is life. Never to have changed-what a pitiable thing of which to boast!
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Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.]
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Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.
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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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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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I make presents to the mother but think of the daughter.
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Man usually believes, if only words he hears, That also with them goes material for thinking.
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The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.
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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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Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.
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When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.
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The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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One does not get to know that one exists until one rediscovers oneself in others.
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Can a sparrow know how a stork feels?
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It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.