An absent friend gives us friendly company when we are well assured of his happiness.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheCourage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTaste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe