Goethe Quotes

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

People always fancy that we must become old to become wise; but, in truth, as years advance, it is hard to keep ourselves as wise as we were.

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

Few are open to conviction, but the majority of men are open to persuasion

It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.

The world is so great and rich, and life so full of variety, that you can never lack occasions for poems.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

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

The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.

A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

One alone does not help, but rather he who unites with many at the right moment.

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.

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

The follies of the wise man are known to himself, but hidden from the world.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.

Let us not dream that reason can ever be popular. Passions, emotions, may be made popular; but reason remains ever the property of an elect few.

Zweck sein selbst ist jegliches Tier. Each animal is an end in itself.

We can offer up much in the large, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom equal to.

There are few who have at once thought and capacity for action. Thought expands, but lames; action animates, but narrows.

Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

Marriage is the beginning and pinnacle of civilization.

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

Even dirt glitters when the sun is shining upon it

Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.

If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.

There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

Only the heart without a stain knows ease.

Your messages I hear, but faith has not been given; The dearest child of Faith is Miracle.

Those who have no hope for a future life are already dead for the present one.

Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.

Some people spend the day in complaining of a headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.

Austere perseverance, hash and continuous... rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistible greater with time.

I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

He who is firm and resolute in will molds the world to himself.

We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out discretion, and so disappears the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.

Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution.

It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.

Stones are mute teachers; they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.

Those that are firm in their will mold the world to themselves.

Woman is mistress of the art of completely imbittering the life of the person on whom she depends.

Microscopes and telescopes really confuse our minds.

There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.

Unlimited activity, of whatever kind, must end in bankruptcy.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!

What is not fully understood is not possessed.