Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThere speaks the man of truly noble ways, Who will not listen to the words of praise. In modesty averse, and with deaf ears, He acts as though the others were his peers.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheI never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWe cannot too soon convince ourselves how easily we may be dispensed with in the world. What important personages we imagine ourselves to be! We think that we alone are the life of the circle in which we move; in our absence, we fancy that life, existence, breath will come to a general pause, and, alas, the gap which we leave is scarcely perceptible, so quickly is it filled again; nay, it is often the place, if not of something better, at least for something more agreeable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe