Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Keep not standing fixed and rooted. Briskly venture, briskly roam.

An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured of his happiness.

Every decided colour does a certain violence to the eye, and forces the organ to opposition.

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.

The errors of the observer come from the qualities of the human mind.

The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.

Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity.

Legislators and revolutionaries who promise both equality and liberty are visionaries and charlatans.

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

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

One is never deceived; one deceives oneself.

Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is; and old men lose one of the most precious rights of man,--that of being judged by their peers.

Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

Live dangerously and you live right.

Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to some beautiful music, and if possible, say some reasonable thing.

Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want.

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.

Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.

Hold your powers together for something good and let everything go that is for you without result and is not suited to you.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

Is it life, I ask, is it even prudence, To bore thyself and bore the students?

The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.

Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.

The thought of death leaves me in perfect peace, for I have a firm conviction that our spirit is a being of indestructible nature; it works on from eternity to eternity, it is like the sun, which though it seems to set to our mortal eyes, does not really set, but shines on perpetually.

People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.

We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.

One lives but once in the world.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Man's restlessness makes him strive.

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

Our earthly ball a peopled garden.

Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.

The iron hand of necessity commands, and her stern decree is supreme law, to which the gods even must submit. In deep silence rules the uncounselled sister of eternal fate. Whatever she lays upon thee, endure; perform whatever she commands.

The threshold is the place of expectation.

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.

All theory, my friend, is grey, But green is life's glad golden tree.

Wind is the loving Wooer of waters; Wind blends together Billows all-foaming. Spirit of man, Thou art like unto water! Fortune of man, Thou art like unto wind!

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.

If thou wouldst hear what seemly is and fit, inquire of noble woman; they can tell, who in life's common usage hold their place by graceful deed and aptly chosen word.

My poor head is in such a whirl, my mind is all in bits.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

Superstition is the poesy of practical life; hence, a poet is none the worse for being superstitious.

It is related of an Englishman that he hanged himself to avoid the daily task of dressing and undressing.

So much has already been said about Shakespeare that there doesn't seem to be anything more to say; yet it is the quality of the spirit that it forever stimulates the spirit.

What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?