Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
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Flowers are the beautiful hieroglyphics of nature with which she indicates how much she loves us.
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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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What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.
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Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
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Men's prejudices rest upon their character for the time being and cannot be overcome, as being part and parcel of themselves. Neither evidence nor common sense nor reason has the slightest influence upon them.
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It is a misfortune to pass at once from observation to conclusion, and to regard both as of equal value; but it befalls many a student.
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Manners form the great charm of women.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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Life is but a preparation for what there is to come.
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Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.
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The best benefit we derive from history is the enthusiasm it excites.
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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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Don't feel guilty if you don't immediately love your stepchildren as you do your own, or as much as you think you should. Everyoneneeds time to adjust to the new family, adults included. There is no such thing as an "instant parent." Actually, no concrete object lies outside of the poetic sphere as long as the poet knows how to use the object properly.
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Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
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Daily life is more instructive than the most effective book.
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Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.
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I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.
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What then is your duty? What the day demands.
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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
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Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.
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Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
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The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself! What man in the world would not find his situation intolerable if he chooses a craft, an art, indeed any form of life, without experiencing an inner calling? Whoever is born with a talent, or to a talent, must surely find in that the most pleasing of occupations! Everything on this earth has its difficult sides! Only some inner drive - pleasure, love - can help us overcome obstacles, prepare a path, and lift as out of the narrow circle in which others tread out their anguished, miserable existences!
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The most fortunate of men, Be he a king or commoner, is he Whose welfare is assured in his own home.