Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
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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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In politics as on a sickbed men toss from side to side in hope of lying more comfortably.
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Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
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The works of Lavoisier and his associates operated upon many of us at that time like the Sun's rising after a night of moonshine: but Chemistry is now betrothed to the Mathematics, and is in consequence grown somewhat shy of her former admirers.
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Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.
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The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.
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He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it.
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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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Battle not with monsters, for then you become one.
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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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If it is the greatest truth that you seek, the plants can direct you.
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Nothing will change the fact that I cannot produce the least thing without absolute solitude.
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The aim of living is life itself.
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Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though he still loved her.
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All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
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One that does not think to highly of himself is more than he thinks.
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Live dangerously and you live right.
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I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.
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Distance... is like futurity. A dim vastness is spread before our souls; the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as those of our vision... But alas! when we have attained our object, when the distant 'there' becomes the present 'here,' all is changed; we are as poor and circumscribed as ever, and our souls still languish for unattainable happiness.
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Miracle is the pet child of faith.
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Beware of a man of one book.
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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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Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive.
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There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.