Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.
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He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
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And what does really matter? That is easy: thinking and doing, doing and thinking--and these are the sum of all wisdom. . . . Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out.
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It will be! the mass is working clearer! Conviction gathers, truer, nearer! The mystery which for Man in Nature lies We dare to test, by knowledge led; And that which she was wont to organize We crystallize, instead.
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It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself.
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Could we perfect human nature, we might also expect a perfect state of things.
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And we went our separate ways without having understood each other. As in this world nobody understands the other easily.
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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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I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.
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Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast.
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The history of mankind is his character.
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What is part of you, you cannot get rid of, even if you were to throw it away.
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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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Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.
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Fortunately, we can take in only so much misfortune; what exceeds that limit either destroys us or leaves us indifferent.
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When two men quarrel, who owns the cooler head is the more to blame.
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Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
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Flowers are the beautiful hieroglyphics of nature with which she indicates how much she loves us.
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The mortal race is far too weak not to grow dizzy on unwonted brights.
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Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
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Unrest and uncertainty are our lot.
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Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. ...For this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
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Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
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There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.