Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

The world only goes forward because of those who oppose it.

The soul of man is like to water; from Heaven it cometh, to Heaven it riseth And then returning to earth, forever alternating.

America, you have it better than our continent, the old one.

An actor should take lessons from a painter and a sculptor.

Man cannot persist long in a conscious state, he must throw himself back into the unconscious, for his root lives there.

Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

We have time enough if we but use it aright

Character is constructed amidst the tempests of the World

Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.

Well-mannered children could be conceived if the parents were well-mannered.

No limit, no definition, may restrict the range or depth of the human spirit's passage into its own secrets or the world's.

In art it's not the thinking that does the job, but making.

When one is polite in German, one lies.

I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe.

I will say with Lorenzo de Medici that those who do not hope for another life are always dead to this one.

Most pioneers are at the mercy of doubt at the beginning, whether of their worth, of their theories, or of the whole enigmatic field in which they labour.

Win for yourself that which your fathers have won.

Higher yet and higher out of clouds and night, nearer yet and nearer rising to the light - light, serene and holy where my soul may rest, purified and lowly, sanctified and blest.

The history of a man is in his character.

Light has called forth one organ to become its like, and thus the eye is formed by the light and for the light so that the inner light may emerge to meet the outer light.

Beauty and Genius must be kept afar if one would avoid becoming their slave.

Noble be man, Helpful and good! For that alone Sets him apart From every other creature On earth.

He loves not who does not see the faults of the beloved as virtues.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.

How often do I lull my seething blood to rest, for you have never seen anything so unsteady, so uncertain, as this heart.

Once more I am a wanderer, a pilgrim, through the world. But what else are you?

If there is confusion in your head and in your heart, what more do you want! A man who no longer loves and no longer errs should have himself buried straight away.

Tolerance should really only be a passing attitude: it should lead to appreciation. To tolerate is to offend.

Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly acheive in an age.

‎It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.

I bid the chords sweet music make, And all must follow in my wake.

When I say to the Moment flying; 'Linger a while -- thou art so fair!' Then bind me in thy bonds undying, And my final ruin I will bear!

Women are silver dishes into which we put golden apples.

The highest happiness, the purest joys of life, wear out at last.

As beauteous is the world, and many a joy Floats through its wide dominion. But, alas, When we would seize the winged good, it flies.

All understanding begins in wonder!

How can one learn to know oneself? Never by introspection, rather by action.

As our inclinations, so our opinions.

Most man only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.

Colour itself is a degree of darkness.

Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.

Alas, I have studied philosophy, the law as well as medicine, and to my sorrow, theology; studied them well with ardent zeal, yet here I am, a wretched fool, no wiser than I was before.

There is nothing more frightful than for a teacher to know only what his scholars are intended to know.

Thank God when he oppresses you, and again when he releases you.

Do thine own task, and be therewith content.

Every great idea exerts, on first appearing, a tyrannical influence: Hence, the advantages it brings are turned all too soon into disadvantages.