Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Every situation, every moment -- is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

More light!

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Sowing is not as difficult as reaping.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. They will make note of this and not remain in your debt long.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Only learn to seize good fortune, for good fortune's always here.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Only law can give us freedom.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Yes! To this thought I hold with firm persistence; The last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence Who daily conquers them anew.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

In comradeship is danger countered best.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Giving is the business of the rich.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The first and last thing required of genius is, love of the truth.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A distracted existence leads us to no goal.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What makes people happy is activity; changing evil itself into good by power, working in a God like manner.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The highest happiness of man is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Those are dead even for this life who hope for no other.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The history of mankind is his character.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Be he a king or a peasant, he is happiest who finds peace at home.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One that does not think to highly of himself is more than he thinks.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is nothing more frightful than imagination without taste.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Every offense is avenged on earth.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What is not fully understood is not possessed.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Never by reflection, but only by doing is self-knowledge possible to one.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We eagerly get hold of a law that serves as a weapon to our passions.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I've studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine -- and even, alas! Theology -- from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

No one as ever completed their apprenticeship.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There are nine requisites for contented living: HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure; WEALTH enough to support your needs; STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them; GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them; PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished; CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor; LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others; FAITH enough to make real the things of God; HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A person hears only what they understand.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

That is the true season of love; when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved as much before, and that no one will ever love in the same way again.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We are the slaves of objects around us, and appear little or important according as these contract or give us room to expand.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The little man is still a man.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Girls we love for what they are; men for what they promise to be.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe