Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Before you can do something you must first be something.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Then indecision brings its own delays, And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute; What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When all is said the greatest action is to limit and isolate one's self.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see its separate forms jumbled together.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What I possess I would gladly retain. Change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Talents are best nurtured in solitude. Character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Master and Doctor are my titles; for ten years now, without repose, I held my erudite recitals and led my pupils by the nose.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Where there is much light, the shadow is deep.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Wealth lost is something lost, honor lost is something lost: Courage lost all is lost.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The coward threatens when he is safe.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

To create something you must be something.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Strike the dog dead, it's but a critic!

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A useless life is an early death.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The person who in shaky times also wavers only increases the evil, but the person of firm decision fashions the universe.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Ambition and love are the wings to great deeds.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Deny yourself! You must deny yourself! That is the song that never ends.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

While man's desires and aspirations stir he cannot choose but err.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I know nothing more mocking than a devil that despairs.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Doubt can only be removed by action.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Love can do much, but duty more.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Mastery passes often for egotism.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe