Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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No one should be rich except those who understand it.
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All truths are old, and all that we have to do is recognize and utter them anew.
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Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.
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What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
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Willing is not enough, we must do.
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There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).
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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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As soon as any one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.
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Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it.
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Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
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The loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.
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Mankind? That is an abstraction. There have always been and always will be only individuals.
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Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.
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Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?
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Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it.
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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
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Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.
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When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.
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There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.
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People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.
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He who can not learn to love must flatter.
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Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.
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Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.
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By seeking and blundering we learn.