Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Poet
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
We don't get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.
The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.
Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.
The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.
Personality is everything in art and poetry.
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
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.
Few people have the imagination for reality.
The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
Nothing is worth more than this day.
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.
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.
Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
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.
Love does not dominate; it cultivates.
I call architecture frozen music.
Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.
The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.
Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.
Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.
The coward only threatens when he is safe.
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
Precaution is better than cure.
Wisdom is found only in truth.
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.
Character develops itself in the stream of life.
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.
Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.
If I love you, what business is it of yours?
The deed is everything, the glory is naught.
A clever man commits no minor blunders.
A person hears only what they understand.
We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.
This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
To rule is easy, to govern difficult.
It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.
He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
Doubt grows with knowledge.
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.
All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.
Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.
Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
I love those who yearn for the impossible.
I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.
A useless life is an early death.
Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.
A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.
Every step of life shows much caution is required.
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.
Age merely shows what children we remain.
Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.
It is the strange fate of man, that even in the greatest of evils the fear of the worst continues to haunt him.
It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
All things are only transitory.
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.