Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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It doesn't behoove elderly persons to follow fashion in their thinking nor in the way they dress.
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War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.
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Hypotheses are lullabies for teachers to sing their students to sleep.
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Wisdom is found only in truth.
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People who think honestly and deeply have a hostile attitude towards the public.
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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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Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.
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Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.
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But the valid issue is the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.
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What is now the foliage moving? Air is still, and hush'd the breeze, Sultriness, this fullness loving, Through the thicket, from the trees. Now the eye at once gleams brightly, See! the infant band with mirth Moves and dances nimbly, lightly, As the morning gave it birth, Flutt'ring two and two o'er earth.
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Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant passages.
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I will say with Lorenzo de Medici that those who do not hope for another life are always dead to this one.
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The important thing is not to know more than all men, but to know more at each moment than any particular man.
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If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
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Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.
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Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced the majority allow themselves to be persuaded.
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True happiness springs from moderation.
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You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
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I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by it.
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If only these treasures were not so fragile as they are precious and beautiful.
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Who longs in solitude to live, Ah! soon his wish will gain: Men hope and love, men get and give, and leave him to his pain.
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Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.
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I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.
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Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.