Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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It would not be worth your while to reach the age of seventy if all the wisdom of the world were to be foolishness before God.
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The people rate strength before everything.
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From desire I plunge to its fulfilment, where I long once more for desire.
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Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
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Willing is not enough, we must do.
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There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste. [Ger., Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]
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I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.
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One doesn't always lose when one has to do without.
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He alone deserves liberty and life who daily must win them anew.
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Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.
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There is no patriotic art.
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Hypotheses are lullabies for teachers to sing their students to sleep.
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We are not all equal, nor can we be so.
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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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Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
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Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.
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All professional men are handicapped by not being allowed to ignore things which are useless.
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What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves. [Ger., Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren.]
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The present moment is a powerful goddess.
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Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own peculiar way.
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Artists have a double relationship towards nature: they are her master and her slave at the same time. They are her slave in so far as they must work with means of this world so as to be understood; her master in so far as they subject these means to their higher goals and make them subservient to them.
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When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.
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After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow.