Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.
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If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.
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Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.
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Our virtues and view spring from one root.
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In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.
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One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.
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What then is your duty? What the day demands.
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Faith is hidden household capital.
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Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.
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He who possesses science and art, Possesses religion as well; He who possesses neither of these, Had better have religion.
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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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Stupidity is without anxiety.
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God help us -- for art is long, and life so short.
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Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.
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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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Great possessions and great want of them are both strong temptations.
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Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.
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Every decided colour does a certain violence to the eye, and forces the organ to opposition.
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Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
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People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.
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It is a misfortune to pass at once from observation to conclusion, and to regard both as of equal value; but it befalls many a student.
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Those who have no hope for a future life are already dead for the present one.
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If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost.
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Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal.