Goethe Quotes

Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply. Wishing Is Not Enough; We Must Do.

Live each day as if your life had just begun.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

How many years you have to keep on doing until you know what to do and how to do!

Age merely shows what children we remain.

Glib tongues frill up their hash of knowledgefor mankind in polished speechesthat are no more than vaporous windsrustling the fallen leaves in autumn.

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

Men grieve [Mephistopheles] so with the days of their lamenting, [he] even hate[s] to plague them with [his] torments.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

He who moves not forward, goes backward.

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

I call architecture frozen music.

Nothing is worth more than this day.

Science and art belong to the whole world and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.

Austere perseverance harsh and continuous may be employed by the least of us and rarely fails of its purpose for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.

15"General ideas and great conceit are always a fair way to bring about terrible misfortune.

Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us mastery over ourselves is destructive.

Most people work the greater part of their time for a mere living and the little freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every means of getting rid of it.

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.

For in music there is no material to be deducted.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

We must always change renew rejuvenate ourselves otherwise we harden.

He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.

A mans manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.

Those who have never seen themselves surrounded on all sides by the sea can never possess an idea of the world, and of their relation to it.

There is strong shadow where there is much light.

Anything in the world can be endured, except a series of wonderful days.

All things are only transitory.

In art the best is good enough.

There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.

One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

When an idea is wanting a word can always be found to take its place.

Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.

Even the lowliest provided he is whole can be happy and in his own . way perfect.

People may live as much retired from the world as they please but sooner or later before they are aware they will find themselves debtor or creditor to somebody.

Everything transitory is but an image.

A man can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

What you feed in yourself that grows.

Man needs only a small patch of earth for his pleasures, and a smaller one still to rest beneath.

Moreover I hate everything which merely instructs me without increasing or directly quickening my activity.

Every day look at a beautiful picture read a beautiful poem listen to some beautiful music and if possible say some reasonable thing.

if only these treasures were not so fragile as they are precious and beautiful.

In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. ... In the real world, all rests on perseverance.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

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