Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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Yet here I stand poor fool what more, not one wit wiser than before.
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To have more, you must first be more.
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Life is the childhood of our immortality.
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I am part of the part that once was everything, Part of the darkness which gave birth to light… Mephistopheles, from Faust.
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Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.
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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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It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.
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Nothing is more consonant with Nature than that she puts into operation in the smallest detail that which she intends as a whole.
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From desire I plunge to its fulfilment, where I long once more for desire.
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Death is Nature's expert advice to get plenty of Life.
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Everything we do has a result. But that which is right and prudent does not always lead to good, nor the contrary to what is bad.
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People who think honestly and deeply have a hostile attitude towards the public.
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Miracle is the pet child of faith.
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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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As man is, so is his God. And thus is God oft strangely odd.
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A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.
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That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.
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One that does not think to highly of himself is more than he thinks.
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It is in the half fools and the half wise that the greatest danger lies.
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It is better for you to suffer an injustice than for the world to be without law. Therefore, let everyone submit to the law.
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Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.
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It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth.
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Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know 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.