Goethe Quotes

The most fortunate of men, Be he a king or commoner, is he Whose welfare is assured in his own home.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

Beautiful is greater than Good, for it includes the Good.

Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.

Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.

Men are much more apt to agree in what they do than in what they think.

Ambition and love are the wings of great actions.

Truth is a torch, but a huge one, and so it is only with blinking eyes what we all of us try to get past it, in actual terror of being burnt.

True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and, despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death, as things divine.

The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

We are our own aptest deceiver.

Begin by instructing yourself, then you will receive instruction from others.

What we do not understand we do not possess.

If we could do away with death, we wouldn't object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.

Art is based on a strong sentiment of religion,--on a profound and mighty earnestness; hence it is so prone to co-operate with religion.

Every solution of a problem is a new problem.

If you wish a wise answer, you must put a rational question.

If in the infinite you want to stride, Just walk in the finite to every side.

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

Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.

A man doesn't learn to understand anything unless he loves it.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

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

Some of our weaknesses are born in us, others are the result of education; it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble.

For what one has in black and white, One can carry home in comfort.

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

We can redeem anyone who strives unceasingly.

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

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

Unrest and uncertainty are our lot.

Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. - Without haste, but without rest.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

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

Great possessions and great want of them are both strong temptations.

The new vulcanism is really a daring attempt to connect the present, incomprehensible world to a past, unknown one.

Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.

Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.

The world sees only the reflection of merit; therefore when you come to know a really great man intimately, you may as often find him above as below his reputation.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

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

Know'st thou yesterday, its aim and reason? Work'st thou will today for worthier things? Then calmly wait the morrow's hidden season, And fear thou not, what hap soe'er it brings

Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

When I make a mistake everyone can see it, but not when I lie.

If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature.

Make the most of time, it flies away so fast; yet method will teach you to win time.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

Sin writes histories, goodness is silent. [Ger., Das Uebel macht eine Geschichte und das Gute keine.]