Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes:

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Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.
This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.
A useless life is an early death.
First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.
Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.
Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.
If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
Doubt grows with knowledge.
Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.
An unused life is an early death.
We will burn that bridge when we come to it.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.
What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.
One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best.
Personality is everything in art and poetry.
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.
Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.
Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.
In art the best is good enough.
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
Few people have the imagination for reality.
Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.
We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
Every spoken word arouses our self-will.
What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
The human mind will not be confined to any limits.
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.
I love those who yearn for the impossible.
We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.
The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.
Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.
If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.
Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
If your treat an individual... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
There occurs the beautiful feeling that only humanity together is the true human being, and that the individual can be cheerful and happy only if he has the courage to feel himself in the Whole.
The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief.
People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.
I will say nothingagainst the course of my existence. But at bottom it has been nothing but pain and burden, and I can affirm that during the whole of my 75 years, I have not had four weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the perpetual rolling of a rock that must be raised up again forever.
Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
Nothing higher can be accomplished by the epic poet thus interpreting his own time in order to serve the future.(Foreword by Frederick Ungar in Elective Affinities, 1962, Ungar Publishing)
An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses."
Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."
Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.
English plays, Atrocious in content, Absurd in form, Objectionable in action, Execrable EnglishTheatre.
What is the true test of character unless it be its progressive development in the bustle and turmoil, in the action and reaction of daily life.
The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.
Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.
My worthy friend, gray are all theories And green alone Life's golden tree.
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.
Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.
No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.
No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.
You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic
No one as ever completed their apprenticeship.
Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.
Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.
Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution.
For many people, one of the most frustrating aspects of life is not being able to understand other people's behavior.
He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.
In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable.
Great endowments often announce themselves in youth in the form of singularity and awkwardness.
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
You can put up with everything in this world except not with a long stretch of beautiful days.
Where confidence is wanting, the most beautiful flower in the garland of love is missing.

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