Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.

Ambition and love are the wings of great actions.

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.

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

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.

After fifteen minutes nobody looks at a rainbow.

What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.

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

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

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

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

Superstition is the poetry of life.

When two people are really happy about one another one can generally assume they are mistaken.

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.

Smoothly and lightly the golden seed by the furrow is covered.

Were not the eye made to receive the rays of the sun, it could not behold the sun; if the peculiar power of God lay not in us, how could the godlike charm us?

It is natural to man to regard himself as the object of the creation, and to think of all things in relation to himself, and the degree in which they can serve and be useful to him.

The sickness of the heart is most easily got rid of by complaining and soothing confidence.

The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world.

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

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

A man's errors are what make him amiable.

How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new-- Important matter yet attractive too? [Ger., Wie machen wir's, dass alles frisch und neu Und mit Bedeutung auch gefallig sei?]

Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.

I consider him of no account who esteems himself just as the popular breath may chance to raise him.

We are surrounded by abysses, but the greatest of all depths is in our own heart, and an irresistible leaning leads us there. Draw thyself from thyself!

A mind, once formed, is never suited after, One yet in growth will ever grateful be. [Ger., Wer fertig ist, dem ist nichts recht zu machen, Ein Werdender wird immer dankbar sein.]

It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals.

What a man does not understand, he does not possess.

Experience is only half of experience.

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.- Henry Ward Beecher - I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.

If thou wouldst hear what seemly is and fit, inquire of noble woman; they can tell, who in life's common usage hold their place by graceful deed and aptly chosen word.

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

He who cannot love must learn to flatter.

Giving is the business of the rich.

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.

The trouble is small, the fun is great. [Ger., Die Muh'ist klein, der Spass ist gross.]

A well-bred carriage is difficult to imitate; for in strictness it is negative, and it implies a long-continued previous training.

Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.

Whatever necessity lays upon thee, endure; whatever she commands, do.

To create something you must be something.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

The clever reader who is capable or reading between these lines what does not stand written in them but is nevertheless implied will be able to form some conception.

If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost.

Character calls forth character.

I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.

How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.