Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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Treat people the way they are and they will stay that way. Treat people the way they can become and they will become that way.
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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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All one needs to do is declare oneself free and one will immediately feel dependent. If you dare to declare yourself dependent, you feel independent.
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No one should be rich except those who understand it.
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Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return.
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For that is love's nature that it lays claim to exclusive right and that all other claims are nil.
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When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.
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Music is so elevated that it is beyond the reach of intellect and there flows from it an influence which is all-potent, and which noone can explain.
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My worthy friend, gray are all theories And green alone Life's golden tree.
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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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He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
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How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you'll soon discover what you're like.
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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
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Tolerance should, strictly speaking, be only a passing mood; it ought to lead to acknowledgment and appreciation. To tolerate a person is to affront him.
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True works of art are a manifestation of the higher laws of nature.
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Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.
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He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.
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The whole art of living consists in giving up existence in order to exist.
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Every man has enough power left to carry out that of which he is convinced.
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We can most safely achieve truly universal tolerance when we respect that which is characteristic in the individual and in nations, clinging, though, to the conviction that the truly meritorious is unique by belonging to all of mankind.
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No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
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There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.
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Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.