Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.
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Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.
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Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.
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The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.
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Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.
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If a man knows where to get good advice, it is as though he could supply it himself.
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No two people see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will often apply the same principle, recognized by both, differently. Even one and the same person won't always maintain the same views and judgments: earlier convictions must give way to later ones.
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Just trust yourself and you'll learn the art of living.
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Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.
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No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
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If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the person of Christ.
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One does not get to know that one exists until one rediscovers oneself in others.
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Generosity wins favour for everyone, especially when it is accompanied by modesty.
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Life is but a preparation for what there is to come.
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If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.
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Duration in change.
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Always to distrust is an error, as well as always to trust.
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To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them - that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
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Ill-humor is nothing more than an inward feeling of our own want of merit, a dissatisfaction with ourselves which is always united with an envy that foolish vanity excites.
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The old lose one of the greatest privileges of man, for they are no longer judged by their contemporaries.
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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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When the healthy nature of man acts as a whole, when he feels himself to be in the world as in a great, beautiful, noble, and valued whole, when harmonious ease affords him a pure and free delight, then the universe, if it could experience itself, would exult, as having attained its goal, and admire the climax of its own becoming and essence.
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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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He who can not learn to love must flatter.