Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Know'st thou yesterday, its aim and reason? Work'st thou will today for worthier things? Then calmly wait the morrow's hidden season, And fear thou not, what hap soe'er it brings.
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He who can not learn to love must flatter.
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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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True love is love that stays constant for ever, whatever it's fortune; whether requited or scored, filled or sent empty away.
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Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own.
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No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.
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There is no patriotic art.
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It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.
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From desire I plunge to its fulfilment, where I long once more for desire.
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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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To every one Nature appears in a form of his own. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.
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The present moment is a powerful goddess.
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Children can scarcely be fashioned to meet with our likes and our purpose. Just as God did us give them, so must we hold them and love them, nurture and teach them to fullness and leave them to be what they are.
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Every idea appears at first as a strange visitor, and when it begins to be realized, it is hardly distinguishable from fantasy.
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A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.
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Every decided colour does a certain violence to the eye, and forces the organ to opposition.
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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
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It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.
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So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!
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Whoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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Doubt grows with knowledge.
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He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
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I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe.