Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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What a day it is when we must envy the men in their graves.
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True works of art are a manifestation of the higher laws of nature.
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The words you've bandied are sufficient; 'Tis deeds that I prefer to see.
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Still this planet's soil for noble deeds grants scope abounding.
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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 an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.
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As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live.
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The true poet is called to take in the splendor of the world and for that reason will always be inclined to praise rather than tofind fault.
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Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.
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That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.
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Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it.
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Normally, people believe that, if they hear just words, that these words must lead to some thought.
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Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
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Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.
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Age merely shows what children we remain.
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Oh God, how do the world and heavens confine themselves, when our hearts tremble in their own barriers!
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If I say to the moment: 'Stay now! You are so beautiful'!
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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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In art it's not the thinking that does the job, but making.
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The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
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Time is a strange thing. It is a whimsical tyrant, which in every century has a different face for all that one says and does.
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One is never satisfied with a portrait of persons whom one knows. That is why I have always pitied portraitists. One demands so seldom of others the impossible, but demands just that of the portraitists.
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Willing is not enough, we must do.
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It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself.