Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Quotes

Wisdom is only found in truth. [Ger., Die Weisheit ist nur in der Wahrheit.]

The threshold is the place of expectation.

Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best.

Wishes are premonitions of abilities.

I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wants.

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

We see only what we know.

The artist who is not also a craftsman is no good; but, alas, most of our artists are nothing else.

Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love.

The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.

I hate all explanations; they who make them deceive either themselves or the other party,-generally both.

A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.

A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world's torrent.

Divide and command, a wise maxim; Unite and guide, a better.

One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.

Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.

Kindness is the golden thread that holds society together.

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

Nature does not suffer her veil to be taken from her, and what she does not choose to reveal to the spirit, thou wilt not wrest from her by levers and screws.

The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.

It is not enough to have knowledge; one must apply it. It is not enough to have wishes; one must also accomplish it.

It is in human nature to relax, when not compelled by personal advantage or disadvantage.

All men would be masters of others, and no man is lord of himself.

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

Is not the core of nature in the heart of man?

When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.

Treat people the way they are and they will stay that way. Treat people the way they can become and they will become that way.

Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.

You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

Collectors are happy people.

There are but few who have ideas and are, at the same time, capable of action. Ideas enlarge but stymie, action enlivens but confines.

The eternal feminine draws us on high.

A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.

Hypotheses are only the pieces of scaffolding which are erected round a building during the course of construction, and which are taken away as soon as the edifice is completed.

Boldness has power, magic and genius in it.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.

I treat my heart like a sick child and gratify its every fancy

By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.

He who moves not forward, goes backward.

Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.

If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.

Classicism is health, romanticisim is sickness.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.

The happy do not believe in miracles.

You must be either the servant or the master, the hammer or the anvil.

What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.

It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.