Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal.
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So dear night the half of life is, And the fairest half indeed.
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The highest happiness, the purest joys of life, wear out at last.
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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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Could we perfect human nature, we might also expect a perfect state of things.
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Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable.
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Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
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The words you've bandied are sufficient; 'Tis deeds that I prefer to see.
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After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow.
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A stated truth loses its grace, but a repeated error appears insipid and ridiculous.
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Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.
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Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
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One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.
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There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.
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When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.
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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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The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
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It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
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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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Mastery is often taken for egotism.
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He who can not learn to love must flatter.
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A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.
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Life is but a preparation for what there is to come.