Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

Since you know me and my destiny only too well, you probably also know what attracts me to all unfortunate people.

He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.

I look upon all four Gospels as thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendor of a sublimity proceeding from Jesus Christ.

Life is not anything, but an opportunity for something.

A wounded heart can with difficulty be cured. [Ger., Doch ein gekranktes Herz erholt sich schwer.]

Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease. [Ger., Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.]

The eternal feminine doth draw us upward. [Ger., Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.]

My peace is gone, my heart is heavy. [Ger., Meine Ruh ist hin, Mein Herz ist schwer.]

Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man.

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

The true poet is called to take in the splendor of the world and for that reason will always be inclined to praise rather than tofind fault.

What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate when we retain them near us.

A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others

Too rigid scruples are concealed pride.

When two men quarrel, who owns the cooler head is the more to blame.

Thou shalt abstain, Renounce, refrain.

Yet he who grasps the moment's gift, He is the proper man.

To be active is the primary vocation of man.

Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season. [Ger., Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.]

Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.

There is a politeness of the heart; this is closely allied to love.

Action has magic, grace and power in it.

I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before, and I hope to return a thousand times.

Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.

Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.

Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.

English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.

Thou art in the end what thou art. Put on wigs with millions of curls, set thy foot upon ell-high rocks. Thou abidest ever--what thou art.

For a strolling damsel a doubtful reputation bears. [Ger., Denn ein wanderndes Madchen ist immer von schwankendem Rufe.]

Beauty vanishes; virtue is lasting.

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,- He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers.

The greatest act of faith takes place when a man finally decides that he is not God.

The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

My inheritance how lordly wide and fair; Time is my fair seed-field, to Time I'm heir.

Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in his own peculiar way.

The effects of good music are not just because it's new; on the contrary music strikes us more the more familiar we are with it.

The day of fortune is like a harvest day, We must be busy when the corn is ripe. [Ger., Ein tag der Gunst ist wie ein Tag der Ernte, Man muss geschaftig sein sobald sie reift.]

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.

Every offense is avenged on earth.

Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.

Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.

I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.

While man's desires and aspirations stir he cannot choose but err.

The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.