Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.
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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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At the end of life thoughts hitherto impossible come to the collected mind, like good spirits which let themselves down from the shining heights of the past.
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Nature is so perfect that the Trinity couldn't have fashioned her any more perfect. She is an organ on which our Lord plays and the devil works the bellows.
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An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured of his happiness.
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Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
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After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end of being poets. Poets send their creations into the world, it is up to the reader, the aesthetician, and the critic to determine what they wanted to say with their creations.
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On all the peaks lies peace.
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Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
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There are but few who have ideas and are, at the same time, capable of action. Ideas enlarge but stymie, action enlivens but confines.
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Mystery is truth's dancing partner.
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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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To know where a thing is we must have found it.
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If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.
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Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. ...For this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
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If you are convinced of a matter, you must take sides or you don't deserve to succeed.
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We are not all equal, nor can we be so.
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They should be ashamed of themselves, all these sober people!
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Wisdom is found only in truth.
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Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action.
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All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
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Nothing tells more about the character of a man than the things he makes fun of.
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Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay.
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Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.