Goethe Quotes

Who enslaves another's manhood with weak human power alone, Lays a heavier yoke of bondage thoughtlessly upon his own.

There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again.

The most foolish of all errors is for clever young men to believe that they forfeit their originality in recognizing a truth which has already been recognized by others.

I come more and more to the conclusion that one must take the side of the minority which is always the more intelligent one.

He who is wise puts aside all claims which may dissipate his attention, and confining himself to one branch excels in that.

A man avails himself of the truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it.

I am very anxious to please the public, particularly as it lives and lets live.

I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias. [Ger., Aufrichtig zu sein kann ich versprechen; unparteiisch zu sein aber nicht.]

What a mighty spirit in a narrow bosom. [Ger., Welch' hoher Geist in einer engen Brust.]

He who would reproach an author for obscurity should look into his own mind to see whether it is quite clear there. In the dusk the plainest writing is illegible.

Lay hold of life with both hands, whenever thou mayest seize it, it is interesting.

A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.

The desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity.

A world without love would be no world.

The useful may be trusted to further itself, for many produce it and no one can do without it; but the beautiful must be specially encouraged, for few can present it, while yet all have need of it.

What is the true test of character unless it be its progressive development in the bustle and turmoil, in the action and reaction of daily life.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

Wind is the loving Wooer of waters; Wind blends together Billows all-foaming. Spirit of man, Thou art like unto water! Fortune of man, Thou art like unto wind!

Properly speaking, we learn from those books only that we cannot judge. The author of a book that I am competent to criticise would have to learn from me.

Instruction does much, but encouragement everyt

15"General ideas and great conceit are always a fair way to bring about terrible misfortune.

On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold, My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold.

If you would create something, you must be something.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

Know thyself? If I knew myself, I'd run away.

What matters creative endless toil, When, at a snatch, oblivion ends the coil?

The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.

Behaviour is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.

Anything in the world can be endured, except a series of wonderful days.

Everything is hard before it is easy

If the whole world I once could seeOn free soil stand, with the people freeThen to the moment might I say, Linger awhile. . .so fair thou art.

Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day

Let this little book be thy friend, if, owing to fortune or through thine own fault, thou canst not find a dearer companion.

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

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.

For in music there is no material to be deducted.

To end the greatest work designed, A thousand hands need but one mind.

What you feed in yourself that grows.

I possess so much, but my love for her absorbs it all. I possess so much, but without her I have nothing.

Literature decays only as men become more and more corrupt.

I was on the point of breaking off the conversation, for nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

The limits of my language are the limits of my universe.

It seems it has been my fate to sadden those I should have made happy.

I could be living the best and happiest of lives if only I were not a fool.

We look back on our life as a thing of broken pieces, because our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained.

We really learn only from those books that we cannot judge. The author of a book that we were able to judge would have to learn from us.

Must it so be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?