Goethe Quotes

The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks

To hard necessity ones will and fancy must conform.

I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.

To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.

One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

That which is eternal in Woman lifts us above.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

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.

Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.

I was oppressed with the sensations I then felt; I sunk under the weight of them.

The master proves himselin recognizing his limitations.

A resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy attentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take man by surprise.

There is nothing more frightful than an active ignorance. [Ger., Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thatige Unwissenheit.]

Thou tremblest before anticipated ills, and still bemoanest what thou never losest.

What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

Ah! my poor brain is racked and crazed, My spirit and senses amazed!

Battle not with monsters, for then you become one.

Once I blazed across the sky, Leaving trails of flame; I fell to earth, and here I lie - Who'll help me up again? -A Shooting Star

Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing.

War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.

It is so hard that one cannot really have confidence in doctors and yet cannot do without them.

The brilliant passes, like the dew at morn; The true endures, for ages yet unborn.

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

Stood I, O Nature! man alone in thee, Then were it worth one's while a man to be.

Give shape, artist! don't talk! Your poem be but a breath.

All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.

The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it.

Time flies, and what is past is done.

Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.

I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.

It doesn't behoove elderly persons to follow fashion in their thinking nor in the way they dress.

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

We are pantheists as natural scientists, polytheists as poets, and monotheists as moral beings.

Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love

True happiness springs from moderation.

The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.

We find from experience that yellow excites a warm and agreeable impression.... The eye is gladdened, the heart expanded and cheered, a glow seems at once to breathe toward us.

If the word is not dead when it reaches the hearer, he murders it at once by a contradiction, a stipulation, a condition, a digression, an interruption, and all the thousand tricks of conversation.

How many joys are crushed under foot because people look up at the sky and disregard what is at their feet?

wit, wit! - I look upon it always as a draught of air; it cools indeed, but one gets a stiff neck from it.

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

One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.

Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about.

If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.

Mystery is truth's dancing partner.

What is part of you, you cannot get rid of, even if you were to throw it away.

A man is really alive only when he delights in the good-will of others.