Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out discretion, and so disappears the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.
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By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.
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The history of mankind is his character.
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The older we grow, the greater become the ordeals.
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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 loss of a much-prized treasure is only half felt when we have not regarded its tenure as secure.
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I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.
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Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.
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Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.
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The works of Lavoisier and his associates operated upon many of us at that time like the Sun's rising after a night of moonshine: but Chemistry is now betrothed to the Mathematics, and is in consequence grown somewhat shy of her former admirers.
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If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
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And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.
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How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.
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Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.
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He alone deserves liberty and life who daily must win them anew.
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There is no patriotic art.
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The soul is indestructible and its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.
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He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
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Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hopes of new pleasures, is it worth while to dress and undress? Does the sun shine on me today that I may reflect on yesterday? That I may endeavor to foresee and control what can neither be foreseen nor controlled - the destiny of tomorrow?
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Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.
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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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Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.
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You don't have to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere.
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I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.