Goethe Quotes

It is a very hard and troublesome thing to dispose of whole, half, and quarter-mistakes; to sift them and assign the portion of truth to its proper place.

A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath.

Nothing can be compared to the new life that the discovery of another country provides for a thoughtful person. Although I am still the same I believe to have changed to the bones.

Colors are light's suffering and joy

What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?

Everything transitory is but an image.

Happy the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers.

Energy will do anything that can be done in this world.

Faith is hidden household capital.

Life's objective is life itself.

Time itself is an element.

Time is my estate: to Time I'm heir.

There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.

On all the peaks lies peace.

We're only really thinking when we can't think out fully what we are really thinking about!

With the growth of knowledge our ideas must from time to time be organized afresh. The change takes place usually in accordance with new maxims as they arise, but it always remains provisional.

The highest cannot be spoken; it can only be acted.

Animals, we have been told, are taught by their organs. Yes, I would add, and so are men, but men have this further advantage that they can also teach their organs in return.

Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.

One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.

Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.

There are people who pay attention to the weaknesses of their friends; that is to no avail. I have always closely watched and profited from the strengths of my adversaries.

God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.

It is equally a mistake to hold one's self too high, or to rate one's self too cheap.

One must be something to be able to do something.

The one who always strives, That one can be redeemed.

The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect.

The errors of the observer come from the qualities of the human mind.

Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.

The little man is still a man.

Error is to truth as sleep is to waking. I have observed that one turns, as if refreshed, from error back to truth.

A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up.

Hypotheses are lullabies for teachers to sing their students to sleep.

All of us have life; few of us have an idea of it.

One doesn't always lose when one has to do without.

Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.

Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.

Fret not over the irretrievable, but ever act as if thy life were just begun.

One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.

The rainbow mirrors human aims and action. Think, and more clearly wilt thou grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection.

Any trifle is enough to entertain two lovers.

The rogue has everywhere the advantage.

Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image. [Ger., Das Betragen ist ein Spiegel in welchem jeder sein Bild zeigt.]

Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.

No one knows what he is doing so long as he is acting rightly; but of what is wrong one is always conscious.

Keep not standing fixed and rooted. Briskly venture, briskly roam.

Just trust yourself and you'll learn the art of living.

Every beginning is cheerful.

Piety, like nobility, has its aristocracy.

Do not hurry; do not rest.