Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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He is a man whom it is impossible to please, because he is never pleased with himself.
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The world remains ever the same.
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The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.
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Lay hold of life with both hands, whenever thou mayest seize it, it is interesting.
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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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Theories are usually the over-hasty efforts of an impatient understanding that would gladly be rid of phenomena, and so puts in their place pictures, notions, nay, often mere words.
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There is no permanence in doubt; it incites the mind to closer inquiry and experiment, from which, if rightly managed, certainty proceeds, and in this alone can man find thorough satisfaction.
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If you call a thing bad you do little, if you call a thing good you do much.
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It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.
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When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.
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There speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.
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I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by 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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One doesn't always lose when one has to do without.
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Everything is hard before it is easy.
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It is the color closest to light. In its utmost purity it always implies the nature of brightness and has a cheerful, serene, gently stimulating character. Hence, experience teaches us that yellow makes a thoroughly warm and comforting impression.
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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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We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.
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To have more, you must first be more.
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Miracle is the pet child of faith.
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People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.
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Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.
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The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.
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Those that are firm in their will mold the world to themselves.