Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

The experiences show us just as we are; they make us see our own defects.

Each traveler should know what he has to see, and what properly belongs to him, on a journey.

No one should be rich except those who understand it.

I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.

Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.

You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song.

It is one of Heaven's best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one's arms.

The question "From where does the poet get it?" addresses only the what, nobody learns anything about the how when asking that question.

The bad thing is that thinking about thought doesn't help at all; one has to have it from nature so that the good ideas appear before us like free children of God calling to us: Here we are.

I curse all negative purism that tells me not to use a word from another language that either expresses something that my own language cannot or does that in a more delicate manner.

In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.

What you desire when young, you have in abundance when old.

To become aware in time when young of the advantages of age; to maintain the advantages of youth in old age: both are pure fortune.

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.

There is nothing outside of us that is not at the same time in us, and as the external world has its colors the eye, too, has colors.

All one needs to do is declare oneself free and one will immediately feel dependent. If you dare to declare yourself dependent, you feel independent.

Paternity is based anyhow only upon conviction: I am convinced, therefore, I am the father.

Everything is simpler than one can imagine, and yet complicated and inter-twined beyond comprehension.

Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though he still loved her.

Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism.

What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?

Perseverance is a silent power that grows irresistibly greater with time.

A lot of people do not care about your money until nearly penniless. They also do so with time

Whoever strenuously endeavors, him we can rescue.

To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.

Everything we do has a result. But that which is right and prudent does not always lead to good, nor the contrary to what is bad.

If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often we can meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking about it at all!

Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man.

To act is easy; to think is hard.

A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way.

Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.

Try novelties for salesman's bait, For novelty wins everyone.

Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations.

Everything in the world may be endured, except only a succession of prosperous days. [Ger., Alles in der Welt lasst sich ertragen, Nur nicht eine Reihe von schonen Tagen.]

A man may twist as he pleases, and do what he pleases, but he inevitably comes back to the track to which nature has destined him.

He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.

To like things like, whatever one may ail; There is certain help.

Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action

Men in a state of nature, uncivilized nations, children, have a great fondness for colors in their utmost brightness, and especially for yellow-red.

Our virtues and view spring from one root.

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

My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.

I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!

I've often heard it said a preacher might learn with a comedian for a teacher.

One mind is enough for a thousand hands.

The present moment is a powerful goddess.

Rejoice that you have still have a long time to live, before the thought comes to you that there is nothing more in the world to see.

Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.

How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you'll soon discover what you're like.

Whatever is the object of a saint's hope is the subject of his prayer.