Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.
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Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.
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Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do.
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Continue to make the demands of the day your immediate concern, and take occasion to test the purity of your hearts and the steadfastness of your spirits. When you then take a deep breath and rise above the cares of this world and in an hour of leisure, you will surely win the proper frame of mind to face devoutly what is above us, with reverence, seeing in all events the manifestation of a higher guidance.
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God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.
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Hatred is a heavy burden. It sinks the heart deep in the breast, and lies like a tombstone on all joys.
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True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.
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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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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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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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A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.
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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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Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.
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Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend.
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What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.
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One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
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Don't say that you want to give, but go ahead and give! You'll never catch up with a mere hope.
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A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way.
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Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.
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Nature has neither core nor skin: she’s both at once outside and in.
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He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
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Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth.
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Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.
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Art is constitutive-the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over.