Goethe Quotes

Where there is much light, the shadows are deepest. [Ger., Wo viel Licht is, ist starker Schatten.]

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.

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

Each one of us must carry within the proof of immortality, it cannot be given from outside of us. To be sure, everything in natureis change but behind the change there is something eternal.

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

What chance gathers, she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.

The solution of every problem is another problem

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

The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and the determination to attain it.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

Take life too seriously, and what is it worth? If the morning wake us to no new joys, if the evening bring us not the hope of new pleasure, is it worthwhile to dress and undress?

Precaution is better than cure.

Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

There is strong shadow where there is much light.

What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.

He who is firm in will molds the world to himself. [Ger., Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.]

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.

The flowers are full of honey, but only the bee finds out the sweetness.

Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.

Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.

Mere curiosity adds wings to every step.

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.

The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

I am part of the part that once was everything, Part of the darkness which gave birth to light… Mephistopheles, from Faust.

The greatest joy of a thinking man is to have searched the explored and to quietly revere the unexplored.

The older I get the more I trust in the law according to which the rose and the lily bloom.

For a brave man deserves a well-endowed girl.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.

Generosity wins favour for everyone, especially when it is accompanied by modesty.

A joy shared is a joy doubled.

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.

To the world you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. Kindness is the golden chain by which our world is bound together.

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.

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

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

In comradeship is danger countered best.

When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen on her face.

A man who cannot command himself will always be a slave.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.