Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

Live dangerously and you live right.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

So, lively brisk old fellow, don't let age get you down. White hairs or not, you can still be a lover.

Man can find no better retreat from the world than art, and man can find no stronger link with the world than art.

Doubt can only be removed by action.

Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.

He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy.

Beware of a man of one book.

The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.

I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.

Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable.

It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been empty.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

Create, artist, do not talk.

Humor is one of the elements of genius--admirable as an adjunct; but as soon as it becomes dominant, only a surrogate for genius.

If you wish to advance into the infinite, explore the finite in all directions.

Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

To have more, you must first be more.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.

Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth.

We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.

The older we grow, the greater become the ordeals.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

For the nature of a women is closely allied to art. [Ger., Denn das Naturell der Frauen Ist so nah mit Kunst verwandt.]

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.

In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable.

No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.

What you can do, or think you can, begin it.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.

Only law can give us freedom.

Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does

I will be lord over myself.

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

Sceptics are yet the most credulous.

Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay.

Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic

He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.

If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question.

To a valet no man is a hero.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.

Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.