Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Such is the frailty of man that even where he makes the truest and most forcible impression in the memory, in the heart of his beloved, there also he must perish.
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We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
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No limit, no definition, may restrict the range or depth of the human spirit's passage into its own secrets or the world's.
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To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign.
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The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.
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No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.
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A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.
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It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.
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The most fortunate of men, Be he a king or commoner, is he Whose welfare is assured in his own home.
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A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.
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What is the universal? The single case. What is the particular? Millions of cases.
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There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.
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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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He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.
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If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party; and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.
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Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.
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God help us -- for art is long, and life so short.
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Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
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A good man, through obscurest aspirations Has still an instinct of the one true way.
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There is strong shadow where there is much light.
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Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal.
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If you have science and art, You also have religion; But if you don't have them, You better have religion.
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Superstition is the poetry of life. It is inherent in man's nature; and when we think it is wholly eradicated, it takes refuge in the strangest holes and corners, whence it peeps out all at once, as soon as it can do it with safety.
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Could we perfect human nature, we might also expect a perfect state of things.